I asked [our guide] if she had forgiven these brutal animals who had done this, and she said: "What can we do? Some of them are still living and working in this government, what can we do? Only the government knows." ... The people who were responsible for these atrocities are not only living among the people, but some are also highly placed members of the current Cambodian government.

Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Written by Anne Mugisha
Columnists
The Observer (Uganda)

Our next stop in the tour of Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S21) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia took us to a room filled with photographs of the victims who were tortured and killed there.

The Khmer Rouge executed their brutality with clinical detachment and professionalism that still sends a chill down the spines of visitors here. What happened here was methodical extermination of anyone considered a threat to the regime.

The systematic documentation of their deeds speaks of the complete belief in the legitimacy of their orders to capture, torture and kill.

The prisoners in S21 had a special chair made for them where they sat to pose for their final photograph. In a perfectly silent room I stared at the mug-shots of the victims.