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

In light of 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 posting installations of the public document of the Closing Order of Case 002.  The Closing Order of the Co-Investigating Judges forms thebasic 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

 

Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site¹⁶⁵⁸

Location and Establishment

Living and Working Conditions

389. The number of workers at Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site varied over time from a few hundred in early 1976 to more than 10,000 workers by 1977.¹⁶⁸⁶ It was a military construction site and almost all the workers, men and women,¹⁶⁸⁷ had been RAK members.¹⁶⁸⁸ 14 former workers at Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site were heard as witnesses.¹⁶⁸⁹ Their testimony reveals that workers were sent to Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site for tempering or refashioning because of their perceived bad biographies or supposed links with traitorous networks.¹⁶⁹⁰ In addition to the "bad elements" from Division 502 itself¹⁶⁹¹ most of the workers at Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site were sent there because they were considered to be associated with the cadre of RAK units who had been arrested and sent to S-21, including from Centre Division 170 (a former East Zone unit),¹⁶⁹² Centre Division 310,¹⁶⁹³ Centre Division 450¹⁶⁹⁴ (former North Zone units)¹⁶⁹⁵ and Centre Division 703, a former Special Zone unit.¹⁶⁹⁶ From 1978 most of the soldiers sent to Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site were sent because their leaders came from or were associated with the East Zone. They generally arrived by trucks in groups from the same military unit.¹⁶⁹⁷ However, there were also soldiers from the Southwest Zone and the West Zone.¹⁶⁹⁸ Furthermore, according to a witness working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (B- 1) at the time, some workers were also sent from B-1 to Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site.¹⁶⁹⁹ Finally, some workers or employees were first tempered at other locations,¹⁷⁰⁰ including Prey Sar (S-24),¹⁷⁰¹ before working at Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site.

390.            The living and working conditions varied depending on how much of a "traitor" the worker was perceived to be. Several witnesses explain that work took place from 7am to 5pm, with a break from 11am to 1pm. Other workers would work night shifts only,¹⁷⁰² whilst those workers perceived to be the biggest traitors would be made to work day and night.¹⁷⁰³ People worked seven days a week.¹⁷⁰⁴

391.            For the construction of the runway, workers had to cut trees, pull out the tree stumps and collect all the plant roots to prepare the ground, as well as dig, bulldoze, break rocks, compress and compact the earth, carry and mix cement and sand, fill the tarmac with concrete and level the ground surface.¹⁷⁰⁵ Other soldiers were working on the hill alongside the runway either in a quarry or drilling a tunnel.¹⁷⁰⁶ Several witnesses state that workers were regularly injured or killed by rocks.¹⁷⁰⁷ One witness saw the death of a person who was hit by fragments projected by a rock explosion.¹⁷⁰⁸ Although the vast majority of the work was done by hand, there was some Chinese machinery on the site.¹⁷⁰⁹ Numerous Chinese technicians provided technical assistance at Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site throughout the period of construction.¹⁷¹⁰ Workers were under strict guard control.¹⁷¹¹ the corpses of those who died at Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site were buried in the forest near Steung Pagoda.¹⁷¹⁸

Security

393. Witnesses observed the disappearance of numerous workers at Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site.¹⁷¹⁹ They noted a correlation between the daily criticism/self-criticism meetings and the disappearances.¹⁷²⁰ During those meetings workers were criticised for being sick or lazy, for work mistakes, for minor offences such as stealing tobacco or for having alleged connections with the Vietnamese.¹⁷²¹ Several witnesses saw trucks transporting workers outside of the airport who never came back.¹⁷²² Many witnesses said they could not be sure about the real fate of the disappeared persons as they did not see the execution.¹⁷²³

394. A worker states that he saw people arrested when he visited Lvey's office, specifying that Lvey was always present when people would be arrested.¹⁷²⁴

395. Several witnesses understood that the prisoners who had disappeared had been killed; they indicate that it was mainly workers from or associated with the East Zone.¹⁷²⁵ One witness heard that people were taken to be killed west of the airport.¹⁷²⁶ Another states that he saw dead bodies in pits at Piem Lok Mountain, approximately five kilometres from the airport; he presumed that those bodies were those of workers from Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site but he could not state so definitively.¹⁷²⁷ One former cadre from identified a pit containing workers who had been executed in 1977; he had seen trucks carrying people stop at this pit site. A short while after the truck stopped he heard screams from the location and, seven days later, he smelled the odour of decomposing corpses. However, there are no human remains currently visible at the surface at this site.¹⁷²⁸ None of the witnesses personally observed the execution of workers from Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site.¹⁷²⁹ There is no evidence of any executions taking place at Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site itself.

396. It appears that some of the workers were sent from Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site to Phnom Penh. Some witnesses understood that workers taken into the trucks would potentially be sent to Phnom Penh, Prey Sar (S-24) or S-21.¹⁷³⁰ One witness states that he saw 30 workers from the East Zone tied up and transported by truck along National Road 5.¹⁷³¹ A former guard at S-21 explains that he believed he was sent to S-24 to be refashioned because his brother, [REDACTED], who used to be at Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site, was arrested and sent to S-21 in late 1978.¹¹³² Other witnesses corroborate that some workers from Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site were sent to S-21,¹⁷³³ as were some Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site cadres. It appears that Yim Sam Ol alias Nha, mentioned as one of the people who disappeared from Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site, was sent to S-21 in late 1978.¹⁷³⁴ Duch also explained during his trial that his brother in law, a cadre at Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site, was transferred to S-21.¹⁷³⁵ Notwithstanding the above evidence, some witnesses state that to their knowledge there were no disappearances, arrests or killings of workers.¹⁷³⁶

397.           Numerous workers (including a number of witnesses) were subsequently reintegrated into RAK and sent to fight in the conflict between Democratic Kampuchea and Vietnam.¹⁷³⁷

398.            The construction of Kampong Chhnang Airport Construction Site was still ongoing when the Vietnamese reached Kampong Chhnang Province in early 1979. At that point work ceased and workers were moved from the area.¹⁷³⁸ The majority of workers went 20 kilometres south to the Romeas train station in Teuk Phos District (District 14).¹⁷³⁹ Workers were told they were to be armed to fight the Vietnamese. However, soldiers from the East Zone were separated from the rest and executed at Mongol Khan Pagoda in Tuol Kpos Village and at the former French fort in Kbal Lan Village (Aphivoat Subdistrict, Teuk Phos District).¹⁷⁴⁰ These mass killings of East Zone soldiers occurred after 6 January 1979.¹⁷⁴¹

***

399.            Nine (9) civil parties were declared admissible with regards to Kampong Chhnang Airport Worksite¹⁷⁴², 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 the Kampong Chhnang Airport Worksite.