The Killing Machine of the Khmer Rouges

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The Khmer Rouges conquered Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975 and that same day, hard to believe but true, made 2 millions people leave the city under the pretense of possible Vietnamese air raids. The “new people”, as the urban population was referred to, were taken into the country side, where they were forced to work in the rice fields or build irrigation canals.

Intellectuals, teachers, politicians and soldiers of the old regime were the first ones to be arrested and taken to prison centers to be exterminated. There were 167 “Security Offices” and 343 “Killings Fields” in the country.

Very soon, it showed that Pol Pot’s vision of a perfect society, based on collective farming, would fail. Although almost the entire population was working in the fields, there was famine. This nightmare did not go unnoticed and some Khmer Rouge cadres tried to defect to Vietnam, others uttered mild criticism, a death sentence if caught. This is when the 3 “Brothers” leading the country became even more paranoid, filling the prisons with more and more of their own people.

S21 or Tuol Sleng was not unique, it was just the biggest Security Prison, located in Phnom Penh. The prison was enclosed by two folds of corrugated iron, all covered with electrified barbed wire.

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