PHNOM PENH, Cambodia –  Cambodia is building a memorial at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum to remember at least 12,000 people tortured and killed there during the radical Khmer Rouge regime.

The museum, formerly a high school in Phnom Penh, was turned into a prison after the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975. An estimated 1.7 million people died as a result of their radical policies.

Kranh Tony, an official attached to the special tribunal for the genocide crimes, said Thursday the memorial will ease the mind of the victims who died in the prison and will be an educational tool for the next generation.

The Buddhist stupa memorial will be roughly 10 meters square (33 feet) and 1 meter tall. It will cost $80,000 and be completed in nine months.