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

 B. WORKSITES AND COOPERATIVES Tram Kok Cooperatives¹²³³

 

Treatment of Specific Groups

319. The subdistrict militia kept a close eye on the persons who arrived from Phnom Penh. If they said anything against the CPK they were arrested and taken away.¹³¹⁶ Former members of the Khmer Republic armed forces and the police of the Khmer Republic, especially those who had held the rank of officer, were closely monitored. Lists of former Lon Nol officers who arrived in the subdistricts were drawn-up and sent to the district. For example, a District 105 document from Nheng Nhang Subdistrict records the names of 11 former Lon Nol officers who had been placed in the subdistrict.¹³¹⁷

320. Two witnesses recall that Cham people in Tram Kok district were treated like everyone else.¹³¹⁸ On the other hand, the Vietnamese appear to have been treated differently. One witness recalls that all the Vietnamese eventually disappeared from his village.¹³¹⁹ A former teacher in the children's unit in Nheng Nhang Subdistrict recalls that in 1976, the Subdistrict chief announced that Subdistrict members of Vietnamese ethnicity would be sent back to Vietnam. She remembers the arrest and execution of people who had lied about their ethnicity hoping to escape. She says that there were two phases in the treatment of the Vietnamese. In the first phase, the Vietnamese were in fact sent home. However, in the second phase, ethnic Vietnamese were taken away and executed.¹³²⁰ Several District 105 documents record the arrest of ethnic Vietnamese.¹³²¹ A report from the Ang Ta Soam Subdistrict dated 26 April 1977 requests guidance from "Angkar" on what to do about the registration of Khmer Krom people. It appears that in several couples, only one person was Vietnamese, but both asked to be sent to Vietnam.¹³²² Another report records that pursuant to a decision of "Angkar", seven Khmer Krom persons were sent back to Vietnam.¹³²³

321.            In parts of Tram Kok, the CPK banned religion and disrobed monks from as early as 1972.¹³²⁴ By April 1975 this policy was instituted district-wide. One witness, a former monk, recalls that after April 1975 all monks who had been born in Takeo or Phnom Penh were instructed to stay at Ang Rakar Pagoda in Tram Kok. CPK cadre later came and told them all to disrobe.¹³²⁵ Witnesses recall the destruction of Buddhist statues and the conversion of monasteries into meeting halls, detention centres, dining halls, pig farms and warehouses.¹³²⁶ People were not permitted to burn incense.¹³²⁷ Those monks who had been disrobed were sent to join the army or made to work.¹³²⁸ In addition, family members were not allowed to cremate bodies or hold funeral ceremonies.¹³²⁹

***

322.            Fifty one (51) civil parties were declared admissible with regards to Tram Kok Cooperatives,¹³³⁰ 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 at Tram Kok Cooperatives.