VIP rooms

An ankle leg-iron is an eerie remnant of much darker days

A visit to Tuol Sleng (aka S21) is always a sober occasion. There's not much time for quiet reflection with the sheer number of tourists and locals coming through the main gates nowadays though the benches in the courtyard can provide some respite. This was where I met Chum Mey, one of only two survivors of S21, on Saturday. The solitary cells on the ground floor of Building A, housing what the tour guides term VIP inmates, provide the backdrop for these pictures.

A leg-iron was used to shackle the prisoners to their bed or during interrogation

A leg-iron, pillow and plate occupy the bedstead in one of the solo prisoner rooms

A rusting ammunition box, used as a latrine, remains

The starkness of the rooms and the symbols of confinement are powerful images

A wooden-slatted bedstead, chains and latrine

Another bedstead with symbols of imprisonment, initiated when the detention center was opened as a museum in 1980

Through the broken glass lies the one of the VIP rooms at S21