The Khmer Rouge exerted total domination over Cambodia through the Santebal ("Keeper of the Peace") - who held the duel role of maintaining security (santisuk) and working as a secret police force (norkorbal). Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison camp was the most notorious of the 150-plus execution centres dotted around Cambodia, in which up to 3million people were brutally tortured and executed during the nation's genocide between 1975 and 1979. Of the 20,000 Cambodians imprisoned in S-21, it is believed that only seven - yes seven - survived. Human experimentation was another trademark of the Santebal, with prisoners tested so that Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge could prove that there was a "master race". The Santebal brutally murdered 25 per cent of the entire population, and then dumped their bodies in 20,000 mass graves dotted around Cambodia which have come to be known as the "Killing Fields". Such mindless slaughter - in a largely arbitrary manner - helps to highlight just how remorseless and barbaric the Santebal were.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
