Tuol Sleng recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register

Cambodge Soir

03-09-2008

Last week the Cambodian Government has officially requested Unesco to include the Tuol Sleng Museum’s archives in the Memory of the World Register.

The S-21 museum is collaborating on the work concerning the memories of the Khmer Rouge period. Last February, in Canberra, Australia, the archives of the former torture centre have been officially included in Unesco’s “Memory of the World” register for Asia and the Pacific region. The Cambodian authorities now wish that those documents be listed in the national register of the organisation. They submitted the official request last week. The United Nations have established this Memory of the World program in 1992, in relation with the numerous documentary heritages which preserve the past of their respective countries through their historical value. The registered documents receive a particular attention regarding their preservation and protection. It is essential for them to remain permanently available to the public. A Cambodian Memory of the World program committee is now being set up.

The S-21 archives reveal how more than 15,000 people have been tortured there between 1975 and 1979. They contain 4186 confessions, 6226 biographies of prisoners and 6147 pictures. All items which are used during the work of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.