Witnessing the horror: A visit to the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre and Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh

A visit to the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre and Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, famously known as the Killing Fields, is an unsettling experience, to say the least. Unsettling, because it brings to the fore the vulnerability and fragility of the political systems we live in and take so much for granted.

The fact that one man, a political despot, Pol Pot, could steer a civil revolution to the point where almost three million innocent Cambodians were killed mercilessly by their own people within a span of four years, from 1975 to 1979, is baffling.

The external link that I've pasted above will give you an insight into the ideology that went into this movement, although no ideology can justify the brutality that was meted out to the Cambodian people, including young children and infants.

Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre....These pictures below speak for themselves

After spending about an hour at the Genocide Centre, we headed to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

Also known as Security Prison 21 under the infamous Khmer Rouge regime, this was a secondary school which got converted into an interrogation and detention centre.

The regime followed a policy of guilt-by-association, so entire families of suspects were held hostage here, including young children.

At the time of the downfall of the Khmer Rouge regime, four children from this facility made it out alive. On your visit, you can meet three of those four survivors, interact with them and read their heart-rending memoirs in the books they've written about their ordeals at the detention centre.

We learnt from our guide that these survivors come to the centre every day to share their haunting memories and let the world know what happened in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime.

I'd like to share 5 important tips for your visit to these sites

• Opt for a conducted tour

  Although you can visit the centre on your own, to truly comprehend the nature and extent of this mindless massacre, a local guide is required. Most travel platforms offer half-day tours to both of these sites, costing between USD 20.00 to USD 25.00 per person for a 4-hour round trip.

  In case you do not opt for a tour, then an audio guide is available for information about the exhibits.

• Mind your dress code

  The mood around the Genocide Centre and the Museum is very sombre. Visitors are expected to behave and dress appropriately, with shoulders and knees covered. If you are wearing something that doesn't adhere to the dress code, you can rent scarves and sarongs from the ticket counter for a nominal fee.

  
  

• Some of the sites are ghastly and unsettling, as I've mentioned earlier. If you're overtly sensitive, then please use your discretion before visiting.

  
  

• The museum has issued an age recommendation for visitors, as per the advisory, exhibits are inappropriate for visitors aged less than 14 years.

  
  

• Photography at the sites is allowed, but visitors are expected to do so with sensitivity and maintain decorum.

Some pics from the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

The atmosphere, both at the Genocide Centre and the Museum, is very grim. The moans of the innocent victims of this genocide have died down, but the pain of human suffering still hangs in the air, along with the human spirit that refuses to die down, even in the face of such extreme violence.