Khmer Rouge's detention center for people with disabilities

Khmer Rouge’s detention center for people with disabilities

By Or Sreypich

Chey Chumneas Referral Hospital is a former detention center for people with disabilities during the Khmer Rouge Regime

The Referral Hospital locates in Ta Kmao city, Kandal province had formerly been known as Prek Thnaot Psychiatric Hospital before the Khmer Rouge took power on January 15, 1975. The hospital was well-known as specializing in mental illness. The hospital was closed during the Khmer Rouge regime, and it was turned into a detention center until liberation day on January 7, 1979, according to an article in Searching for the Truth magazine of the Documentation Center of Cambodia.

In “Khmer Rouge Security Center at Former Prek Thnoat Psychiatric Hospital Ta Khmao District, Kandal Province,” Pheng Pong-Rasy wrote that most victims were handicapped people who were gathered from Phnom Penh and other places. They were executed after being tortured. The dead bodies of the victims were buried at the compound of the hospital where the Khmer Rouge planted the coconut trees on the site with the belief that the corpses would provide good fertilizer. There were around 130 coconut trees planted there during the Khmer Rouge regime.

Takmao Roundabout with the statue of a dark man holding a big stick is the symbol of Takmao city. Takmao city was controlled by the Khmer Rouge starting on January 15, 1975, until the liberation day on January 7, 1979.

The Chey Chumneas Referral Hospital in Takmao city was formerly named Prek Thnaot Psychiatric Hospital. It served as the detention center during Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979.

This is one of the coconut trees which the Khmer Rouge planted on the site where they buried the dead bodies with the belief that the corpses would provide good fertilizer. There were around 130 coconut trees planted throughout the compound of the hospital during the KR regime.

This building was a detention area in the compound of the hospital where most of the victims were handicapped people. They had been gathered from Phnom Penh city and other places. They were buried in the compound of the psychiatric hospital after being tortured and executed.