Bou Meng, Rare Survivor of Khmer Rouge Torture Prison, Dies at 85

Bou Meng has died at the age of 85, according to reports. He was one of only a handful of prisoners who managed to make it out alive from Tuol Sleng, the brutal prison run by the Khmer Rouge.

What set Bou Meng apart, and ultimately saved him, was his ability to paint. That skill is credited as the reason he was kept alive, at a time when the overwhelming majority of people held at Tuol Sleng did not survive.

A rare voice from a notorious prison

Tuol Sleng has become known as one of the most notorious symbols of the Khmer Rouge era, a facility where prisoners were subjected to brutal treatment and where survival was exceedingly rare. Of those who passed through its walls, only a small number lived to describe what took place there.

Bou Meng's death is a reminder of this dark chapter, and of the small circle of survivors whose accounts have helped preserve the record of what happened inside the prison. His story — a skill in painting that became the reason he was spared — has stood as an example of how narrow the line between life and death could be under the Khmer Rouge.

Details of the circumstances of his death were not included in the available report.