Graphic fact file on the Tuol Sleng prison run by Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime from 1975-1979.Photo:Martin Megino/Gal/Js/AFP PHNOM PENH (AFP) - As dusk falls on Cambodia's capital, security guards at the Tuol Sleng genocide museum huddle together at the ticket office to protect themselves from ghosts.
"At night, we can see a black shadow walking," says Kim Sok, a 25-year-old guard at the museum, which served as the main prison for the 1975 to 1979 Khmer Rouge regime.
"We just stay close together so we can take care of each other."
Here, at prison code-named S-21 under the supervision of former mathematics teacher Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, more than 15,000 prisoners were tortured before being hauled to a killing field on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
After the UN-backed Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal began on Tuesday to try Duch for crimes against humanity and war crimes, nowhere seems as haunted as his notorious former prison.
Belief in spirits is widespread throughout Cambodia and there is particular fear of those who died violently without a proper Buddhist burial.
"Many people, including tourists, told me they've seen spirits disguised as a monk, a prisoner and children," says Ith Simorn, 48, who lives in a house across from the ramshackle museum.
Consisting of four buildings and a dusty field, Tuol Sleng was a high school until the Khmer Rouge made it the centre of a network of 70 prisons throughout the country.
Documents at Tuol Sleng reveal leaders ordered suspected enemies of the regime to be tortured into signing statements that they were agents of the CIA, KGB and of neighbouring Vietnam.
In all, up to two million people died in Cambodia under the regime because of overwork, starvation, execution and torture.
"When I arrived here, I found lots of bloodstains, handcuffs and spools of string in the house. I realised that they were for torture," says Sokha, a 55-year-old housewife whose home is next to Tuol Sleng.
"I always send good wishes to the spirits wandering around Tuol Sleng when I go to a pagoda."
Chey Sopheara, director of the Tuol Sleng museum, says he saw a spirit of an inmate there shortly after the Khmer Rouge was ousted by Vietnamese-led forces in January 1979.
"One early evening around 5:30 pm, I was sitting on a bench near one of the buildings. A spirit zoomed in and its two hands held my thighs so tightly that I couldn't move. I noticed the ghost wore red trousers."
The next morning, he says, guards there found a girl's corpse clad in red trousers.
Cambodians who work at the museum or live nearby say the place will remain haunted until the regime's leaders are punished.
Khmer Rouge "Brother Number One" Pol Pot died in 1998, but Duch and four other surviving regime leaders are due to be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Three decades after he survived electrical shocks and beatings, former Tuol Sleng prisoner Chum Mey said he still wakes up sobbing every night.
"Sometimes, the spirits make me dream about them and ask me for help," says the 79-year-old, who was allowed to live by the Marxist regime because he was deemed a useful mechanic.
"I believe the spirits of the Khmer Rouge victims are still there, waiting restlessly around the former prison for justice," he adds.
If the five ageing leaders are convicted, they will spend the rest of their lives in prison. But after so many years of waiting, Chum Mey can't quite believe that Duch will have to answer for the past.
"I do not yet trust the court procedures, even though the (court) says Duch will be tried for the first time. If the court really starts the trials, I'll be very delighted because this is what I've been waiting for," Chum Mey says.
"I?m sure the spirits at Tuol Sleng will be too."
"At night, we can see a black shadow walking," says Kim Sok, a 25-year-old guard at the museum, which served as the main prison for the 1975 to 1979 Khmer Rouge regime.
"We just stay close together so we can take care of each other."
Here, at prison code-named S-21 under the supervision of former mathematics teacher Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, more than 15,000 prisoners were tortured before being hauled to a killing field on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
After the UN-backed Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal began on Tuesday to try Duch for crimes against humanity and war crimes, nowhere seems as haunted as his notorious former prison.
Belief in spirits is widespread throughout Cambodia and there is particular fear of those who died violently without a proper Buddhist burial.
"Many people, including tourists, told me they've seen spirits disguised as a monk, a prisoner and children," says Ith Simorn, 48, who lives in a house across from the ramshackle museum.
Consisting of four buildings and a dusty field, Tuol Sleng was a high school until the Khmer Rouge made it the centre of a network of 70 prisons throughout the country.
Documents at Tuol Sleng reveal leaders ordered suspected enemies of the regime to be tortured into signing statements that they were agents of the CIA, KGB and of neighbouring Vietnam.
In all, up to two million people died in Cambodia under the regime because of overwork, starvation, execution and torture.
"When I arrived here, I found lots of bloodstains, handcuffs and spools of string in the house. I realised that they were for torture," says Sokha, a 55-year-old housewife whose home is next to Tuol Sleng.
"I always send good wishes to the spirits wandering around Tuol Sleng when I go to a pagoda."
Chey Sopheara, director of the Tuol Sleng museum, says he saw a spirit of an inmate there shortly after the Khmer Rouge was ousted by Vietnamese-led forces in January 1979.
"One early evening around 5:30 pm, I was sitting on a bench near one of the buildings. A spirit zoomed in and its two hands held my thighs so tightly that I couldn't move. I noticed the ghost wore red trousers."
The next morning, he says, guards there found a girl's corpse clad in red trousers.
Cambodians who work at the museum or live nearby say the place will remain haunted until the regime's leaders are punished.
Khmer Rouge "Brother Number One" Pol Pot died in 1998, but Duch and four other surviving regime leaders are due to be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Three decades after he survived electrical shocks and beatings, former Tuol Sleng prisoner Chum Mey said he still wakes up sobbing every night.
"Sometimes, the spirits make me dream about them and ask me for help," says the 79-year-old, who was allowed to live by the Marxist regime because he was deemed a useful mechanic.
"I believe the spirits of the Khmer Rouge victims are still there, waiting restlessly around the former prison for justice," he adds.
If the five ageing leaders are convicted, they will spend the rest of their lives in prison. But after so many years of waiting, Chum Mey can't quite believe that Duch will have to answer for the past.
"I do not yet trust the court procedures, even though the (court) says Duch will be tried for the first time. If the court really starts the trials, I'll be very delighted because this is what I've been waiting for," Chum Mey says.
"I?m sure the spirits at Tuol Sleng will be too."
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