Closing Order of Case 002 against Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith

In preparation for the start of trial hearings beginning on 27 June 2011 of Case 002 against the surviving Khmer Rouge senior leaders Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith, KI Media is starting a new series in posting installations of the public document of the Closing Order of Case 002.  The Closing Order of the Co-Investigating Judges forms the basic document from which all the parties (Co-Prosecutors, Co-Lead Lawyers for all civil parties, Defense Lawyers) will be making their arguments before the Trial Chamber judges (one Cambodian President, 2 Cambodian Judges, 2 UN judges).  Up until now, the hearings involving these four surviving senior Khmer Rouge leaders have been in the Pre-Trial Chamber over issues of pre-trial detention and jurisdictional issues.  Beginning in June 2011, the Trial Chamber will hear the substantive arguments over the criminal charges (e.g. genocide, crimes against humanity, penal code of 1956).  Available in Khmer and French.  Contact the ECCC for a free copy.

CLOSING ORDER

of Co-Investigating Judges You Bunleng and Marcel Lemonde, 15 September 2010

Return 

294. Most of the persons who survived the voyage from the East Zone returned to their villages as soon as they could.¹²¹³ One witness was imprisoned by the Vietnamese for two months before he returned to his home village.¹²¹⁴ Some returning witnesses saw dead bodies scattered along the national road,¹²¹⁵ or graves full of decomposed bodies, bones and skulls.¹²¹⁶ 

Reasons Given to the Population for the Movement 

295. At the meetings held prior to the population movement, people were generally told that they were being sent to an area where there was more food and fertile land for cultivation.¹²¹⁷ One witness states that he was told he had to go to Pursat Province as part of the "great leap forward".¹²¹⁸ Another witness reports a speech by a cooperative chairman, who said that  "Battambang Province needs people to work the rice fields in order to sort out the national interests". 

296. Ta Mok is said to have indicated, during a meeting with Northwest Zone cadre in Pursat town, that the population movement was due to Vietnamese aggression against Cambodia and the betrayal of the East Zone leader, Sao Phim. The former chairman of Rumlech cooperative (in Bakan Leu District, Sector 2 of the Northwest Zone) who attended this meeting, states that Ta Mok referred to Sao Phim as a traitor, and stated that "Angkar" was going to move the population from the East Zone to the Northwest Zone. Ta Mok added that it was necessary to "examine them closely to see if they would oppose the Party's guideline because when those people were evacuated and located at the sugar refinery factory in Phnom Penh they were found with guns. So they might have a string with the Yuon (Vietnamese)" }²²⁰ 

297. Two former CPK cadres explain that the purpose of the displacement was to remove people from the combat zone with the Vietnamese.¹²²¹ This appears to be the case as regards the final transfer of civilians shortly before the collapse of the regime in late 1978 or early 1979.¹²²² A former cook at Kroch Chhmar Commerce Office states that the displacement was to avoid the "fighting between the North Zone and the East Zone groups".¹²²³ It appears that this population movement had the dual aim of taking people near the border to safer areas, whilst removing politically suspect people from the Zone.¹²²⁴ 

Management and Supervision 

298. Most witnesses indicate that cadres from the Southwest and Central (Old North) Zones (who had previously purged the local East Zone cadre) managed and supervised the transfer.¹²²⁵ Others state that there were cadres involved who spoke with an accent¹²²⁶ and/or militiamen.¹²²⁷ Some state that local cadres would escort them as far as Neak Loeung.¹²²⁸ 

299.            As regards the management of arrivals in the Northwest Zone, one witness relates how a meeting was organised in Pursat town to discuss organization.¹²²⁹ It was chaired by Ta Mok (Northwest Zone Committee), with Sarun (Sector Committee) and [REDACTED] (District Committee) present. 

300.            A former railway worker reports that in Pursat, there were armed soldiers guarding the people in the trains, who told them "when and where to leave the train at the different locations " and/or transported them by truck to a cooperative.¹²³⁰ Local CPK cadres would then assign people to work in the cooperatives in Pursat and Battambang Provinces.¹²³¹

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301. Two hundred and nineteen (219) civil parties were declared admissible in the context of the Movement of the Population from the East Zone (Phase 3),¹²³² since the alleged crimes described in the application were considered as being more likely than not to be true, pursuant to Internal Rule 23 bis (4). These civil parties have provided sufficient elements tending to establish prima facie personal harm as a direct consequence of the crimes committed during the Movement of the Population from the East Zone (Phase 3).