Skull Exhibit Must Go, Sihanouk Says
A macabre exhibit of human skulls at a museum housing a former Khmer Rouge torture center should be dismantled, Cambodia’s Prince Norodom Sihanouk said Thursday.
Sihanouk, who returned last week from nearly 13 years in exile, said the remains of thousands executed by the ultra-leftist Khmer Rouge during their 1975-79 rule should be cremated.
“We have to liberate the souls and send them to a world of justice and peace. The dead will then give us their blessing so here will be peace,” he told a news conference.
“To be in peace in the world they need cremation,” he said, adding that he would not visit the museum at Tuol Sleng, a former high school in the capital.
Some of the skulls from the Khmer Rouge “Killing Fields” years have been arranged to form a ghoulish wall map of Cambodia in the museum at Tuol Sleng.
At nearby Choeung Ek, 12 miles from Phnom Penh, thousands more skulls retrieved from the execution pits are stored in a glass-and-concrete shrine.
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