Gazing at all the photographs of those who had been tortured and executed we struggled to hold back the tears. In 1975 the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Pol Pot, began a four year reign of terror in Cambodia that took an estimated 2 million lives. Thousands of those souls who died during that time spent their last days at the infamous Toul Sleng prison in Phnom Penh which is now a museum of genocidal crime.
This former high school has been left in the state the invading Vietnamese found it when they liberated Phnom Penh from the Khmer Rouge in 1979. It’s said that the Vietnamese found it by following the odour of decaying flesh. It must have been an unimaginably horrific sight. Room after room of cramped cells and torture chambers where the Khmer Rouge extracted false confessions from innocent civilians by torturing them in ways that are unspeakable.
While we were visiting the prison we had the privilege of meeting one of the few survivors of Toul Sleng. Chum Mey was arrested, tortured and forced to confess to working for the CIA which he had never heard of before. It was his skill as a motor mechanic that saved him from being sent to the killing fields outside of Phnom Penh to be executed
Even though the visit to this prison was a desperately sad one, we used it to talk with the youth at NaCE about the difficult issue of forgiveness.Kang Kek Lew, the former director of Toul Sleng Prison is well known by all Cambodians as ‘Comrade Duch’. He is currently serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity committed at Toul Sleng. But what is less known about Duch is that in 1996 he become a Christian. So I asked the youth; “If a man convicted of crimes against humanity can find forgiveness from God through the death of his Son Jesus, then how can we not forgive those who sin against us?”
I later learnt that Chris LePel, the minister through whom Duch came to faith in Jesus had himself lost family members and friends at Toul Sleng. He is reported to have told the court at Duch’s trial in 2009 that he had forgiven Duch for what he had done. That’s worth remembering when we are finding forgiveness hard.
Hi. I have been there, too.
I felt really sad when I saw many photos who were killed.
And I heard many kids were kidnapped and forced to be a soldiers.
We should stop the war and won’t let them to have fire arms anymore.
And I also have visited museum of land mines.
I taught my experiences to my students.
Did you find this visit helped you understand the Cambodian people better? Such an awful history.
Yes, it was very awful but helpful. When you see this kind of thing you can start to understand why the Cambodians are very fearful of the government, and in particular any change of government. Sadly, the current government plays on this fear to keep themselves in government.