Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum - Discovery

In 1979, H�" Văn Tây, a Vietnamese combat photographer, was the first journalist to document Tuol Sleng to the world. H�" and his colleagues followed the stench of rotting corpses to the gates of Tuol Sleng. The photos of H�" documenting what he saw when he entered the site are exhibited in Tuol Sleng today.

The Khmer Rouge required that the prison staff make a detailed dossier for each prisoner. Included in the documentation was a photograph. Since the original negatives and photographs were separated from the dossiers in the 1979�"1980 period, most of the photographs remain anonymous to this day.

Interior Lines: A military strategy which holds that the fastest, most efficient maneuvers, transportation and communication are conducted within an enclosed geographic area as opposed to outside the geographic area.

Chevaux-de-Frise: (pronounced sheh-VOH-de-freez) A defensive obstacle constructed by using a long horizontal beam pierced with diagonal rows of sharpened spikes. When several cheval-de-frise (singular, pronounced she-VAL-de-freez) were bolted together they created an effective barrier for roads and fortifications.

Rifle-Musket: The common weapon of the Civil War infantryman, it was a firearm fired from the shoulder. It differed from a regular musket by the grooves (called rifling) cut into the inside of the barrel. When the exploding powder thrusts the bullet forward, the grooves in the barrel make it spin, just like a football spirals through the air. Rifle-muskets were more accurate and had a longer range than smoothbore weapons.

Furlough: A leave from duty, granted by a superior officer. The furloughed soldier carried papers which described his appearance, his unit, when he left and when he was due to return. Furlough papers also contained a warning that failure to return on time would cause the soldier to be "considered a deserter".

Traverse: A mound of earth used to protect gun positions from explosion or to defilade the inside of a field work or fortification.