Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum - Concentration camp rules

When prisoners were first brought to Tuol Sleng, they were made aware of ten rules that they were to follow during their incarceration. What follows is what is posted today at the Tuol Sleng Museum; the imperfect grammar is a result of faulty translation from the original Khmer:

You must answer accordingly to my question. Don't turn them away.
Don't try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that, you are strictly prohibited to contest me.
Don't be a fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution.
You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.
Don't tell me either about your immoralities or the essence of the revolution.
While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.
Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.
Don't make pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your secret or traitor.
If you don't follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire.
If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.
During testimony at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal on April 27, 2009, Duch claimed the 10 security regulations were a fabrication of the Vietnamese officials that first set up the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

Fortification: Something that makes a defensive position stronger, like high mounds of earth to protect cannon or spiky breastworks to slow an enemy charge. Fortifications may be man-made structures or a part of the natural terrain. Man-made fortifications could be permanent (mortar or stone) or temporary (wood and soil). Natural fortifications could include waterways, forests, hills and mountains, swamps and marshes.

Armory: A place where weapons and other military supplies are manufactured.

Kepi: (pronounced KEH-peeh) Cap worn by Civil War soldiers; more prevalent among Union soldiers.

"Lost Cause": Cultural movement in which Southern states attempted to cope - mentally and emotionally - with devastating defeat and Northern military occupation after the Civil War. The movement idealized life in the antebellum South, loudly protested against Reconstruction policies, and exalted Confederate figures such as "Stonewall" Jackson and Robert E. Lee.

Napoleonic Tactics: The tactics used by Napoleon Bonaparte that were studied by military men and cadets at West Point before the Civil War. His tactics were brilliant for the technology of warfare at the time he was fighting. However, by the Civil War, weapons had longer ranges and were more accurate than they had been in Napoleon's day.

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

The museum is open to the public from 8 am to 5 pm. Visitors have the opportunity of viewing a 'survivor testimony' from 2:30pm to 3pm (Monday�"Friday). Along with the Choeung Ek Memorial (the Killing Fields), the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is included as a point of interest for those visiting Cambodia. Tuol Sleng also remains an important educational site as well as memorial for Cambodians. Since 2010, the ECCC brings Cambodians on a 'study tour' to the Tuol Sleng, Choeung Ek and finishing at the ECCC complex. During 2010, around 27,000 Cambodians visited the museum through this tour. (See ECCC Court Report January 2011.) Some believed that ghosts of the victims continue to haunt the place.

A number of images from Tuol Sleng are featured in the 1992 Ron Fricke film Baraka.

Shell: A hollow projectile, shot from a cannon; a shell was filled with powder and lit by a fuse when it was fired. Shells exploded when their fuse burned down to the level of the powder. Depending on the length of the fuse, artillerymen could decide when they wanted the shell to burst.

Cap: Essential to firing a percussion rifle-musket, a cap is a tiny brass shell that holds fulminate of mercury. The cap is placed on the gun so that when a trigger is pulled, the hammer falls on the cap. The chemical in the cap ignites and flame shoots into the chamber that holds the gunpowder. This ignites the powder and the blast shoots the bullet out of the barrel.

Ambulance: A two-wheeled or four-wheeled wagon or cart used to transport wounded or sick soldiers.

Popular Sovereignty: (pronounced sov-rin-tee) This doctrine was prominent during the debate over slavery in the territories. Popular sovereignty said that the people of each territory should be able to decide for themselves if slavery should be allowed in their territory when it became a state.

Emancipation: Freedom from slavery.

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum - History

The prison had very strict regulations, and severe beatings were inflicted upon any prisoner who disobeyed. Almost every action had to be approved by one of the prison's guards. The prisoners were sometimes forced to eat human feces and drink human urine. The unhygienic living conditions in the prison caused skin diseases, lice, rashes, ringworm and other ailments. The prison's medical staff were untrained and offered treatment only to sustain prisoners' lives after they had been injured during interrogation. When prisoners were taken from one place to another for interrogation, they were blindfolded. Guards and prisoners were not allowed to converse. Moreover, within the prison, people who were in different groups were not allowed to have contact with one another.

Ambush: To lie in wait for an unexpected attack.

Kepi: (pronounced KEH-peeh) Cap worn by Civil War soldiers; more prevalent among Union soldiers.

Coup de Main: (pronounced koo-duh-mahn) A French term used to describe a quick, vigorous attack that surprises the enemy.

Sap Roller: A very large, bullet resistant gabion which was used to protect soldiers from enemy fire as they constructed trenches.

Private: The lowest rank in the army.

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum - Non-Cambodian prisoners

Two Franco-Vietnamese brothers named Rovin and Harad Bernard were detained in April 1976 after they were transferred from Siem Reap, where they had worked tending cattle. Another Frenchman named Andre Gaston Courtigne, a 30-year-old clerk and typist at the French embassy, was arrested the same month along with his Khmer wife in Siem Reap.

It is possible that a handful of French nationals who went missing after the 1975 evacuation of Phnom Penh also passed through S-21. Two Americans were captured under similar circumstances. James Clark and Lance McNamara in April 1978 were sailing when their boat drifted off course and sailed into Cambodian waters. They were arrested by Khmer patrol boats, taken ashore, where they were blindfolded, placed on trucks, and taken to the then-deserted Phnom Penh.

Breach: A large gap or "hole" in a fortification's walls or embankments caused by artillery or mines, exposing the inside of the fortification to assault.

"Peculiar Institution": Another term for slavery in the South.

Commutation: Stipulation adopted by both the Union and Confederate governments which allowed certain draftees to pay a fee in order to avoid military service. Because the fee was higher than the average worker's annual salary, this provision angered less-wealthy citizens on both sides of the war.

Barrel: The long metal tube on a gun through which a projectile is fired.

Mortar: An unrifled artillery gun which was designed to launch shells over walls and enemy fortifications. The most famous Civil War mortar is the "Dictator" -- a mortar which was mounted on a railroad car and used during the siege of Petersburg. With its 13 inch bore it was capable of launching two hundred pound shells.