Tuol Sleng Survivors

The above photo is reproduced courtesy of DC-Cam and shows a group of survivors from the 20,000 prisoners that were incarcerated in the Tuol Sleng interrogation centre in Phnom Penh between 1975 and 1979. DC-Cam investigations suggest up to fourteen prisoners managed to survive the extermination at the centre though at the time this photo was taken in 1979, only seven had been identified. They were: [RtoL] Chum Mey, Ruy Neakong*, Im Chan*, Vann Nath, Bou Meng, Phan Than Chan* and Ung Pech*. Only three of those pictured survive today - Chum Mey, Vann Nath and Bou Meng.

I've just watched all of John Pilger's documentaries on Cambodia and one of the original survivors, Ung Pech, was interviewed by Pilger for his first programme, Year Zero. Pech, whose life was spared because of his skill as a mechanic, became the first Director of Tuol Sleng when it opened to the public as a Genocide Museum on 7 January 1980, a year after its liberation. In the interview he described how he lost his wife and five children to starvation and how he himself was tortured. Ung Pech remained as Director until the early '90s and passed away in late 1996.