Khmer Rouge

clipped from www.nytimes.com

Out From Behind a Camera at a Khmer Torture House

Inmates at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, where at least 14,000 people were tortured to death or sent to killing fields.

Published: October 26, 2007

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Oct. 25 — He had a job to do, and he did it supremely well, under threat of death, within earshot of screams of torture: methodically photographing Khmer Rouge prisoners and producing a haunting collection of mug shots that has become the visual symbol of Cambodia’s mass killing.

Nhem En, who was a photographer at the most notorious torture house of the
Khmer Rouge regime, was called to be a witness at a coming trial of Khmer Rouge
leaders.


Before killing the prisoners,
the Khmer Rouge photographed, tortured and extracted written confessions from
their victims.