Closing Order of Case 002 against Senior KR Leaders 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

Location and Establishment

302. The eight subdistricts of Kus, Samrong, Trapeang Thom Tboung, Trapeang Thom Cheung, Tram Kok, Nheng Nhang, Sre Ronong and Ta Phem were part of Tram Kok District, Takeo Province. Applying the CPK's system of identifying administrative boundaries, they were located in District 105, Sector 13, Southwest Zone.¹²³⁴

303. Not long after 1970, the CPK progressively organised those who were responsible for agricultural production in areas it controlled into small group cooperatives, which were later expanded into village cooperatives and ultimately subdistrict level cooperatives.¹²³⁵ In a cooperative, private property, such as rice paddy fields, was placed under the collective ownership of the State.¹²³⁶ The process of collectivisation occurred incrementally. For example, a witness who lived in Samrong subdistrict recalls that in 1975 the CPK started collecting private property and instituted communal eating. But it was not until 1976 that people were divided into different working units.¹²³⁷ In any event, it appears that by April 1977 all the subdistricts in Tram Kok District had been organised into cooperatives and appear to have remained in this state until the end of the CPK regime.¹²³⁸