PHNOM PENH: Three former Khmer Rouge execution and torture sites in Cambodia were inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List on Friday, marking 50 years since the regime’s brutal rise to power.
The newly recognised sites include Phnom Penh’s Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, once the notorious S-21 prison where an estimated 15,000 people were tortured, and Choeung Ek, a former cemetery turned “killing field” where the victims were executed. Another site, M-13 prison in Kampong Chhnang province, served as an early testing ground for interrogation methods.
“These are landscapes of our shared memory,” said genocide survivor Youk Chhang. Prime Minister Hun Manet said the listing should remind future generations that peace must be defended.
The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, killing around two million people through mass executions, starvation and forced labour.
Only three senior leaders were ever convicted by the UN-backed tribunal before it ceased operations in 2022. – AFP
