Photographs from Tuol Sleng
These last two images are disturbing, be warned.
Although I generally post music and design-related around here, the title does say culture. And while this is hardly on the beautiful side of culture, just reading about it kept me wide awake through the night. Earlier this week, Kaing Guek Eav (aka Duch), a notorious member of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia’s oppressive ruling party from 1975 to 1979, was sentenced by the UN to prison for crimes against humanity. The prison term for this man who oversaw Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot’s secret torture prison S-21 aka Tuol Sleng, and the brutal deaths of up to 17,000 mostly innocent “prisoners,” is a shocking mere 19 more years, meaning he could potentially walk free one day. I consider this an outrage, and it’s part of my motivation to share these gripping photographs here, part of the extensive system of records that were maintained, which included confessions extracted from each one (which were needed in order to execute them), often obtained through prolonged torture and appallingly neglectful living conditions. Many of those targeted by the Khmer Rouge and their insane plan to reset society to “Year Zero,” forcing cities like Phnom Penh to empty into the countryside where they were forced into labor camps, or worse. It is claimed that between 800,000 and 2-million people, about 25% of the country’s entire population perished at the hangs of people like Pol Pot, Duch, and 5 more living Khmer Rouge leaders awaiting trial.
More information can be found here, and on Wikipedia and the news. How can we help serve true justice to those responsible and their victims?
Posted in Uncategorized Posted by Alex on Jul 28 2010 09:19 am
Trackback URL
