In Cambodia, Tuol Sleng was a high school until the mid 1970s when it was converted into a torture prison by the Khmer Rouge. It was at this prison where more than 10,000 men, women, and children from Cambodia and other countries as well were held captive and tortured while Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were in power. People were brought to the prison for detention, interrogation, inhumane torture, and execution once confession documents had been completed. Why were these people treated in such a way? For those that are unaware or just need a refresher, here’s a brief history lesson…
Saloth Sar (a.k.a. Pol Pot) together with the Khmer Rouge wanted to establish Cambodia as an agricultural country and needed people to work in the fields. To avoid having to deal with people that would question the transformation to a country primarily focused on agriculture, the KR decided to have all such people eliminated. People targeted for arrest and eventual execution included doctors, teachers, people who spoke a foreign language, people who wore glasses (glasses were a sign of intelligence), Buddhist monks, and 90% of the Christians. The KR would even arrest entire families, including infants, at a time. The rest of the Cambodian population were sent to live in the forest and countryside as slaves after Pol Pot issued an order that the city of Phnom Penh be vacated.
Inside the prison, some of the classrooms were converted into small cells where each prisoner was kept. The torture rooms had glass panels in the windows to block out prisoners’ screams. Imprisonment lasted from 2 to 4 months. For political prisoners, they were held up to 7 months. The buildings on the campus were covered in dense barb wire to prevent anyone from committing suicide by jumping off a building. The KR systematically gave each prisoner an identification number and had them look into a camera for a picture to be added to their files.
The school transformed into a torture prison is today a museum. Our squad was able to see the rooms where people were held and cruelly treated by the Khmer Rouge. We saw the pictures of the thousands of people that were imprisoned in Tuol Sleng. We saw the mass burial graves of Cheung Eik (a.k.a. The Killing Fields). It’s incredible to think that all of this happened shortly before I was born. It’s unfathomable to comprehend that 2 million people (30% of the Cambodian population) died within a 4-year timespan. It’s no wonder why 60% of Cambodians over the age of 4o that survived the genocide have some sort of pyschological disorder.
For the prayer warriors… Please pray for healing in Cambodia. Please pray that the Cambodians would overcome their past and move on for a better future. Please also pray for our squad as we try to show them God’s love and that there is hope in Jesus Christ.
