Cambodia sites of Khmer Rouge brutality heritage listed
The three locations were inscribed on the list by the United Nations cultural agency on Friday during the 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris.
The Murujuga rock art landscape in Western Australia was listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a heritage site on Friday after intense lobbying by the federal government.
The Cambodian inscription coincided with the 50th anniversary of the rise to power by the communist Khmer Rouge government, which caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, torture and mass executions during a four-year reign from 1975 to 1979.
UNESCO's World Heritage List features sites considered important to humanity and includes the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and Cambodia's Angkor archaeological complex.
The three sites listed on Friday include two notorious prisons and an execution site immortalised in a Hollywood film.
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, in the capital Phnom Penh, is the site of a former high school used by the Khmer Rouge as a notorious prison.
Better known as S-21, about 15,000 people were imprisoned and tortured there.
The M-13 prison, located in rural Kampong Chhnang province in central Cambodia, was also regarded as one of the main prisons of the early Khmer Rouge.
Choeung Ek, about 15km south of the capital, was used as an execution site and mass grave.
The story of the atrocities committed there is the focus of the 1984 film The Killing Fields, based on the experiences of New York Times photojournalist Dith Pran and correspondent Sydney Schanberg.
The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, and immediately herded almost all the city's residents into the countryside, where they were forced to toil in harsh conditions until 1979, when the regime was driven from power by an invasion from neighbouring Vietnam.
In September 2022, the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, better known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal, concluded its work compiling cases against Khmer Rouge leaders.
The tribunal cost $US337 million ($A512 million) across 16 years but convicted just three men.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet issued a message on Friday directing people to beat drums simultaneously across the country on Sunday morning to mark the UNESCO listing.
"May this inscription serve as a lasting reminder that peace must always be defended," Hun Manet said in a video message posted online.
"From the darkest chapters of history, we can draw strength to build a better future for humanity."
Youk Chhang, executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, said the country was "still grappling with the painful legacies of genocide, torture, and mass atrocity".
But naming the three sites on the UNESCO list would play a role in educating younger generations of Cambodians and others worldwide, Chhang said.
"Though they were the landscape of violence, they too will and can contribute to heal the wounds inflicted during that era that have yet to heal," he said.
The UNESCO inscription was Cambodia's first nomination for a modern and non-classical archaeological site and among the first in the world to be submitted as a site associated with recent conflict, Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said in a statement on Friday.
Four Cambodian archaeological sites were previously inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Angkor, Preah Vihear, Sambo Prei Kuk and Koh Ker, the ministry said.
Three locations used by Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime as torture and execution sites 50 years ago have joined UNESCO's World Heritage List.
The three locations were inscribed on the list by the United Nations cultural agency on Friday during the 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris.
The Murujuga rock art landscape in Western Australia was listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a heritage site on Friday after intense lobbying by the federal government.
The Cambodian inscription coincided with the 50th anniversary of the rise to power by the communist Khmer Rouge government, which caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, torture and mass executions during a four-year reign from 1975 to 1979.
UNESCO's World Heritage List features sites considered important to humanity and includes the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and Cambodia's Angkor archaeological complex.
The three sites listed on Friday include two notorious prisons and an execution site immortalised in a Hollywood film.
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, in the capital Phnom Penh, is the site of a former high school used by the Khmer Rouge as a notorious prison.
Better known as S-21, about 15,000 people were imprisoned and tortured there.
The M-13 prison, located in rural Kampong Chhnang province in central Cambodia, was also regarded as one of the main prisons of the early Khmer Rouge.
Choeung Ek, about 15km south of the capital, was used as an execution site and mass grave.
The story of the atrocities committed there is the focus of the 1984 film The Killing Fields, based on the experiences of New York Times photojournalist Dith Pran and correspondent Sydney Schanberg.
The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, and immediately herded almost all the city's residents into the countryside, where they were forced to toil in harsh conditions until 1979, when the regime was driven from power by an invasion from neighbouring Vietnam.
In September 2022, the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, better known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal, concluded its work compiling cases against Khmer Rouge leaders.
The tribunal cost $US337 million ($A512 million) across 16 years but convicted just three men.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet issued a message on Friday directing people to beat drums simultaneously across the country on Sunday morning to mark the UNESCO listing.
"May this inscription serve as a lasting reminder that peace must always be defended," Hun Manet said in a video message posted online.
"From the darkest chapters of history, we can draw strength to build a better future for humanity."
Youk Chhang, executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, said the country was "still grappling with the painful legacies of genocide, torture, and mass atrocity".
But naming the three sites on the UNESCO list would play a role in educating younger generations of Cambodians and others worldwide, Chhang said.
"Though they were the landscape of violence, they too will and can contribute to heal the wounds inflicted during that era that have yet to heal," he said.
The UNESCO inscription was Cambodia's first nomination for a modern and non-classical archaeological site and among the first in the world to be submitted as a site associated with recent conflict, Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said in a statement on Friday.
Four Cambodian archaeological sites were previously inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Angkor, Preah Vihear, Sambo Prei Kuk and Koh Ker, the ministry said.
Three locations used by Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime as torture and execution sites 50 years ago have joined UNESCO's World Heritage List.
The three locations were inscribed on the list by the United Nations cultural agency on Friday during the 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris.
The Murujuga rock art landscape in Western Australia was listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a heritage site on Friday after intense lobbying by the federal government.
The Cambodian inscription coincided with the 50th anniversary of the rise to power by the communist Khmer Rouge government, which caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, torture and mass executions during a four-year reign from 1975 to 1979.
UNESCO's World Heritage List features sites considered important to humanity and includes the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and Cambodia's Angkor archaeological complex.
The three sites listed on Friday include two notorious prisons and an execution site immortalised in a Hollywood film.
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, in the capital Phnom Penh, is the site of a former high school used by the Khmer Rouge as a notorious prison.
Better known as S-21, about 15,000 people were imprisoned and tortured there.
The M-13 prison, located in rural Kampong Chhnang province in central Cambodia, was also regarded as one of the main prisons of the early Khmer Rouge.
Choeung Ek, about 15km south of the capital, was used as an execution site and mass grave.
The story of the atrocities committed there is the focus of the 1984 film The Killing Fields, based on the experiences of New York Times photojournalist Dith Pran and correspondent Sydney Schanberg.
The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, and immediately herded almost all the city's residents into the countryside, where they were forced to toil in harsh conditions until 1979, when the regime was driven from power by an invasion from neighbouring Vietnam.
In September 2022, the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, better known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal, concluded its work compiling cases against Khmer Rouge leaders.
The tribunal cost $US337 million ($A512 million) across 16 years but convicted just three men.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet issued a message on Friday directing people to beat drums simultaneously across the country on Sunday morning to mark the UNESCO listing.
"May this inscription serve as a lasting reminder that peace must always be defended," Hun Manet said in a video message posted online.
"From the darkest chapters of history, we can draw strength to build a better future for humanity."
Youk Chhang, executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, said the country was "still grappling with the painful legacies of genocide, torture, and mass atrocity".
But naming the three sites on the UNESCO list would play a role in educating younger generations of Cambodians and others worldwide, Chhang said.
"Though they were the landscape of violence, they too will and can contribute to heal the wounds inflicted during that era that have yet to heal," he said.
The UNESCO inscription was Cambodia's first nomination for a modern and non-classical archaeological site and among the first in the world to be submitted as a site associated with recent conflict, Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said in a statement on Friday.
Four Cambodian archaeological sites were previously inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Angkor, Preah Vihear, Sambo Prei Kuk and Koh Ker, the ministry said.
Three locations used by Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime as torture and execution sites 50 years ago have joined UNESCO's World Heritage List.
The three locations were inscribed on the list by the United Nations cultural agency on Friday during the 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris.
The Murujuga rock art landscape in Western Australia was listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a heritage site on Friday after intense lobbying by the federal government.
The Cambodian inscription coincided with the 50th anniversary of the rise to power by the communist Khmer Rouge government, which caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, torture and mass executions during a four-year reign from 1975 to 1979.
UNESCO's World Heritage List features sites considered important to humanity and includes the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and Cambodia's Angkor archaeological complex.
The three sites listed on Friday include two notorious prisons and an execution site immortalised in a Hollywood film.
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, in the capital Phnom Penh, is the site of a former high school used by the Khmer Rouge as a notorious prison.
Better known as S-21, about 15,000 people were imprisoned and tortured there.
The M-13 prison, located in rural Kampong Chhnang province in central Cambodia, was also regarded as one of the main prisons of the early Khmer Rouge.
Choeung Ek, about 15km south of the capital, was used as an execution site and mass grave.
The story of the atrocities committed there is the focus of the 1984 film The Killing Fields, based on the experiences of New York Times photojournalist Dith Pran and correspondent Sydney Schanberg.
The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, and immediately herded almost all the city's residents into the countryside, where they were forced to toil in harsh conditions until 1979, when the regime was driven from power by an invasion from neighbouring Vietnam.
In September 2022, the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, better known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal, concluded its work compiling cases against Khmer Rouge leaders.
The tribunal cost $US337 million ($A512 million) across 16 years but convicted just three men.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet issued a message on Friday directing people to beat drums simultaneously across the country on Sunday morning to mark the UNESCO listing.
"May this inscription serve as a lasting reminder that peace must always be defended," Hun Manet said in a video message posted online.
"From the darkest chapters of history, we can draw strength to build a better future for humanity."
Youk Chhang, executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, said the country was "still grappling with the painful legacies of genocide, torture, and mass atrocity".
But naming the three sites on the UNESCO list would play a role in educating younger generations of Cambodians and others worldwide, Chhang said.
"Though they were the landscape of violence, they too will and can contribute to heal the wounds inflicted during that era that have yet to heal," he said.
The UNESCO inscription was Cambodia's first nomination for a modern and non-classical archaeological site and among the first in the world to be submitted as a site associated with recent conflict, Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said in a statement on Friday.
Four Cambodian archaeological sites were previously inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Angkor, Preah Vihear, Sambo Prei Kuk and Koh Ker, the ministry said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
14 hours ago
- Perth Now
Five children killed in blast while playing football
Five children in southwestern Yemen died after an explosive device detonated in a residential area where they were playing soccer, rights groups and eye witnesses say. The circumstances surrounding their deaths on Friday night in the Al-Hashmah subdistrict of Taiz province remain unclear. However, the Yemen Center for Human Rights and another rights group called Eye of Humanity along with Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah TV said an artillery shell was fired by militias backed by the Islah party, which is allied to the internationally recognised government in south Yemen. A spokesperson for the United Nations children's agency UNICEF told The Associated Press that they are aware of reports about the incident but can't verify the facts at the moment. Two local residents who were eyewitnesses, Ahmed al-Sharee and Khaled al-Areki, told the AP that the children were playing soccer when the explosion happened. At least three people with minor to moderate injuries were also taken to the hospital, according to the eyewitnesses. Meanwhile, Mahmoud al-Mansi, another eyewitness, said the explosive was directed from an area where forces allied with the Islah party were present. The Yemen Center for Human Rights condemned the incident in a report that included graphic photos of the children's torn bodies. Citing healthcare sources at Al-Rafai Hospital, where the victims arrived unresponsive, the group said they died from shrapnel injuries. Two of the children were 12 years old, while two others were 14 years old, according to the group. The age of the fifth child is unknown. Taiz city, the capital of the province of the same name, has been a battleground, pitting the Iran-backed Houthi militias and other militias backed by the Islah party against each other and other factions in Yemen's civil war. The city was under Houthi blockade since 2016, restricting the freedom of movement and flow of essential goods to residents, but Houthis recently opened key roads. Yemen's ruinous civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen, forcing the internationally recognised government into exile. A coalition led by Saudi Arabia and including the United Arab Emirates intervened the following year to try to restore the government to power. The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council controls much of the south, which has been fractured by the civil war. The council advocates for the south's secession and has its own militia forces, allied to the internationally-recognised government fighting the Houthis.
Sky News AU
20 hours ago
- Sky News AU
Almost 800 killed near aid hubs in Gaza
Almost 800 Palestinians have been killed near aid hubs in Gaza in the last six weeks, according to the United Nations. The UN claims the majority of killings happened near centres run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US and Israel-backed organisation. A UN rights office spokesperson says most of the people killed died from gunshot wounds while trying to access aid. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation denies that the IDF has fatally shot Palestinians near these hubs.
The Advertiser
20 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Cambodia sites of Khmer Rouge brutality heritage listed
Three locations used by Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime as torture and execution sites 50 years ago have joined UNESCO's World Heritage List. The three locations were inscribed on the list by the United Nations cultural agency on Friday during the 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris. The Murujuga rock art landscape in Western Australia was listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a heritage site on Friday after intense lobbying by the federal government. The Cambodian inscription coincided with the 50th anniversary of the rise to power by the communist Khmer Rouge government, which caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, torture and mass executions during a four-year reign from 1975 to 1979. UNESCO's World Heritage List features sites considered important to humanity and includes the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and Cambodia's Angkor archaeological complex. The three sites listed on Friday include two notorious prisons and an execution site immortalised in a Hollywood film. Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, in the capital Phnom Penh, is the site of a former high school used by the Khmer Rouge as a notorious prison. Better known as S-21, about 15,000 people were imprisoned and tortured there. The M-13 prison, located in rural Kampong Chhnang province in central Cambodia, was also regarded as one of the main prisons of the early Khmer Rouge. Choeung Ek, about 15km south of the capital, was used as an execution site and mass grave. The story of the atrocities committed there is the focus of the 1984 film The Killing Fields, based on the experiences of New York Times photojournalist Dith Pran and correspondent Sydney Schanberg. The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, and immediately herded almost all the city's residents into the countryside, where they were forced to toil in harsh conditions until 1979, when the regime was driven from power by an invasion from neighbouring Vietnam. In September 2022, the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, better known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal, concluded its work compiling cases against Khmer Rouge leaders. The tribunal cost $US337 million ($A512 million) across 16 years but convicted just three men. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet issued a message on Friday directing people to beat drums simultaneously across the country on Sunday morning to mark the UNESCO listing. "May this inscription serve as a lasting reminder that peace must always be defended," Hun Manet said in a video message posted online. "From the darkest chapters of history, we can draw strength to build a better future for humanity." Youk Chhang, executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, said the country was "still grappling with the painful legacies of genocide, torture, and mass atrocity". But naming the three sites on the UNESCO list would play a role in educating younger generations of Cambodians and others worldwide, Chhang said. "Though they were the landscape of violence, they too will and can contribute to heal the wounds inflicted during that era that have yet to heal," he said. The UNESCO inscription was Cambodia's first nomination for a modern and non-classical archaeological site and among the first in the world to be submitted as a site associated with recent conflict, Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said in a statement on Friday. Four Cambodian archaeological sites were previously inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Angkor, Preah Vihear, Sambo Prei Kuk and Koh Ker, the ministry said. Three locations used by Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime as torture and execution sites 50 years ago have joined UNESCO's World Heritage List. The three locations were inscribed on the list by the United Nations cultural agency on Friday during the 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris. The Murujuga rock art landscape in Western Australia was listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a heritage site on Friday after intense lobbying by the federal government. The Cambodian inscription coincided with the 50th anniversary of the rise to power by the communist Khmer Rouge government, which caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, torture and mass executions during a four-year reign from 1975 to 1979. UNESCO's World Heritage List features sites considered important to humanity and includes the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and Cambodia's Angkor archaeological complex. The three sites listed on Friday include two notorious prisons and an execution site immortalised in a Hollywood film. Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, in the capital Phnom Penh, is the site of a former high school used by the Khmer Rouge as a notorious prison. Better known as S-21, about 15,000 people were imprisoned and tortured there. The M-13 prison, located in rural Kampong Chhnang province in central Cambodia, was also regarded as one of the main prisons of the early Khmer Rouge. Choeung Ek, about 15km south of the capital, was used as an execution site and mass grave. The story of the atrocities committed there is the focus of the 1984 film The Killing Fields, based on the experiences of New York Times photojournalist Dith Pran and correspondent Sydney Schanberg. The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, and immediately herded almost all the city's residents into the countryside, where they were forced to toil in harsh conditions until 1979, when the regime was driven from power by an invasion from neighbouring Vietnam. In September 2022, the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, better known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal, concluded its work compiling cases against Khmer Rouge leaders. The tribunal cost $US337 million ($A512 million) across 16 years but convicted just three men. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet issued a message on Friday directing people to beat drums simultaneously across the country on Sunday morning to mark the UNESCO listing. "May this inscription serve as a lasting reminder that peace must always be defended," Hun Manet said in a video message posted online. "From the darkest chapters of history, we can draw strength to build a better future for humanity." Youk Chhang, executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, said the country was "still grappling with the painful legacies of genocide, torture, and mass atrocity". But naming the three sites on the UNESCO list would play a role in educating younger generations of Cambodians and others worldwide, Chhang said. "Though they were the landscape of violence, they too will and can contribute to heal the wounds inflicted during that era that have yet to heal," he said. The UNESCO inscription was Cambodia's first nomination for a modern and non-classical archaeological site and among the first in the world to be submitted as a site associated with recent conflict, Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said in a statement on Friday. Four Cambodian archaeological sites were previously inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Angkor, Preah Vihear, Sambo Prei Kuk and Koh Ker, the ministry said. Three locations used by Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime as torture and execution sites 50 years ago have joined UNESCO's World Heritage List. The three locations were inscribed on the list by the United Nations cultural agency on Friday during the 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris. The Murujuga rock art landscape in Western Australia was listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a heritage site on Friday after intense lobbying by the federal government. The Cambodian inscription coincided with the 50th anniversary of the rise to power by the communist Khmer Rouge government, which caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, torture and mass executions during a four-year reign from 1975 to 1979. UNESCO's World Heritage List features sites considered important to humanity and includes the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and Cambodia's Angkor archaeological complex. The three sites listed on Friday include two notorious prisons and an execution site immortalised in a Hollywood film. Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, in the capital Phnom Penh, is the site of a former high school used by the Khmer Rouge as a notorious prison. Better known as S-21, about 15,000 people were imprisoned and tortured there. The M-13 prison, located in rural Kampong Chhnang province in central Cambodia, was also regarded as one of the main prisons of the early Khmer Rouge. Choeung Ek, about 15km south of the capital, was used as an execution site and mass grave. The story of the atrocities committed there is the focus of the 1984 film The Killing Fields, based on the experiences of New York Times photojournalist Dith Pran and correspondent Sydney Schanberg. The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, and immediately herded almost all the city's residents into the countryside, where they were forced to toil in harsh conditions until 1979, when the regime was driven from power by an invasion from neighbouring Vietnam. In September 2022, the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, better known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal, concluded its work compiling cases against Khmer Rouge leaders. The tribunal cost $US337 million ($A512 million) across 16 years but convicted just three men. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet issued a message on Friday directing people to beat drums simultaneously across the country on Sunday morning to mark the UNESCO listing. "May this inscription serve as a lasting reminder that peace must always be defended," Hun Manet said in a video message posted online. "From the darkest chapters of history, we can draw strength to build a better future for humanity." Youk Chhang, executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, said the country was "still grappling with the painful legacies of genocide, torture, and mass atrocity". But naming the three sites on the UNESCO list would play a role in educating younger generations of Cambodians and others worldwide, Chhang said. "Though they were the landscape of violence, they too will and can contribute to heal the wounds inflicted during that era that have yet to heal," he said. The UNESCO inscription was Cambodia's first nomination for a modern and non-classical archaeological site and among the first in the world to be submitted as a site associated with recent conflict, Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said in a statement on Friday. Four Cambodian archaeological sites were previously inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Angkor, Preah Vihear, Sambo Prei Kuk and Koh Ker, the ministry said. Three locations used by Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime as torture and execution sites 50 years ago have joined UNESCO's World Heritage List. The three locations were inscribed on the list by the United Nations cultural agency on Friday during the 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris. The Murujuga rock art landscape in Western Australia was listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a heritage site on Friday after intense lobbying by the federal government. The Cambodian inscription coincided with the 50th anniversary of the rise to power by the communist Khmer Rouge government, which caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, torture and mass executions during a four-year reign from 1975 to 1979. UNESCO's World Heritage List features sites considered important to humanity and includes the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and Cambodia's Angkor archaeological complex. The three sites listed on Friday include two notorious prisons and an execution site immortalised in a Hollywood film. Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, in the capital Phnom Penh, is the site of a former high school used by the Khmer Rouge as a notorious prison. Better known as S-21, about 15,000 people were imprisoned and tortured there. The M-13 prison, located in rural Kampong Chhnang province in central Cambodia, was also regarded as one of the main prisons of the early Khmer Rouge. Choeung Ek, about 15km south of the capital, was used as an execution site and mass grave. The story of the atrocities committed there is the focus of the 1984 film The Killing Fields, based on the experiences of New York Times photojournalist Dith Pran and correspondent Sydney Schanberg. The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, and immediately herded almost all the city's residents into the countryside, where they were forced to toil in harsh conditions until 1979, when the regime was driven from power by an invasion from neighbouring Vietnam. In September 2022, the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, better known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal, concluded its work compiling cases against Khmer Rouge leaders. The tribunal cost $US337 million ($A512 million) across 16 years but convicted just three men. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet issued a message on Friday directing people to beat drums simultaneously across the country on Sunday morning to mark the UNESCO listing. "May this inscription serve as a lasting reminder that peace must always be defended," Hun Manet said in a video message posted online. "From the darkest chapters of history, we can draw strength to build a better future for humanity." Youk Chhang, executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, said the country was "still grappling with the painful legacies of genocide, torture, and mass atrocity". But naming the three sites on the UNESCO list would play a role in educating younger generations of Cambodians and others worldwide, Chhang said. "Though they were the landscape of violence, they too will and can contribute to heal the wounds inflicted during that era that have yet to heal," he said. The UNESCO inscription was Cambodia's first nomination for a modern and non-classical archaeological site and among the first in the world to be submitted as a site associated with recent conflict, Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said in a statement on Friday. Four Cambodian archaeological sites were previously inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Angkor, Preah Vihear, Sambo Prei Kuk and Koh Ker, the ministry said.
