QJM vol. 98 no. 2 © Association of Physicians 2005; all rights reserved.
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Foot shackles in Cambodia
Photograph by Rose Paton McGilp
These metal foot shackles were used to imprison supposed enemies of the Khmer Rouge regime in the notorious prison S-21 in Cambodia. They were fastened to the ankles, and prisoners were made to exercise in them at 4.30 each morning.1
People were held for ‘crimes against the party‘, which ranged from speaking ill of its policies to speaking French. They were tortured to confess to real or imaginary crimes, and then transported to the ‘Killing Fields’ of Choeung Ek on the outskirts of the capital. Of the 14 000 people that passed through S-21, only seven lived to see the fall of the Khmer Rouge. In his book Voices from S-21, David Chandler attempts to compare the Cambodian prison with Nazi Germany's concentration camps.2 There are differences, but what remains constant is the alarming attempt to exterminate a huge population of people.
This reign of terror, led by Pol Pot, finally came to an end when two Vietnamese photographers discovered S-21 after the invasion and helped to turn the site into a museum. Experiencing this at first hand is a harrowing experience: rooms which used to be classrooms are dilapidated, with unexplained scars and stains on floors and windows; cells complete with chains are still intact, and one can imagine the disturbing brutality.
Up to 200 000 people are thought to have been executed by the Khmer Rouge,2 and the museum is seen as a way of educating people from around the world, in the hope that this kind of atrocity will never happen again.
References
1. Chhang Y, Kosal P. Leaflet on Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
2. Chandler D. Voices from S-21. Malaysia, Silkworm Books, 2000.
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