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Konrad Busslinger | all galleries >> «Cambodia» >> «Phnom Penh» > Torture house Toul Sleng, Phnom Penh
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04-FEB-2008 Konrad Busslinger

Torture house Toul Sleng, Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh

Toul Sleng, otherwise known as S-21, was formerly a Khmer Rouge facility used to imprison, torture, and kill "enemies" of the Khmer Rouge. Over 12,000 prisoners experienced it's horrors between the years 1975 and 1978. Of those, only seven survived. Seven. Today, the building has been opened up to tourists to show the world the possible depths of human depravity. We watched an hour long documentary on the prison, and in that documentary one of the seven survivors openly admitted to helping the Rouge cart people off to the killing fields. He said, "I didn't cut any one's throat, I only hit 5 people." I fell disgusted by yet sorry for a man who finds some kind of redemption in one form of murder over another. I couldn't walk through the torture chambers without crying. I could see that the same old cracked tiles I was standing on were the same as those in the black and white torture photos in front of me. In the photo, blood darkened the floor below the torture bed, almost like a shadow. I wondered if the many stains I saw were caused by blood that simply refused to be washed away. I passed through some of the tiny cells, almost hearing the murmur of broken men and women. They slept in a mass detention hall with their ankles attached to a common bar, each body alternating directions. I clasped the rusty bars that crisscrossed the windows and imagined a desperate hand holding the same spot thirty years ago. Thirty years ago! That's all! They had an exhibition room with hundreds of photographs of those who were killed. So many faces...

Canon EOS 40D ,Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS
1/320s f/5.6 at 30.0mm iso200 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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