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

Sang Security Centre

 

Interrogation

483. Three witnesses and two civil parties were interrogated at Sang. ²⁰⁹⁵ Only one was seriously mistreated during interrogations.²⁰⁹⁶ Two former cadres admit to participating in or observing interrogations.²⁰⁹⁷ One admits witnessing prisoners being seriously mistreated.²⁰⁹⁸ He recalls that prisoners were asked about matters of immorality and whether they were Lon Nol soldiers, CIA, or KGB agents. If prisoners did not admit to being enemies they would be hit with a rattan cane or suffocated with a plastic bag until they lost consciousness.²⁰⁹⁹ During an interrogation, a guard would record the prisoner's confession in writing before taking it to another cadre to type up.²¹⁰⁰

484. Sang's former typist confirms that he typed up confessions which usually outlined a prisoner's sympathies toward the Lon Nol regime, capitalism, feudalism, the CIA or the KGB. Once such a confession was typed, it was handed to Mong who would sign it.²¹⁰¹ A former guard who worked as Mong's messenger recalls that once a file on a prisoner had been finalised, he would be asked to deliver an envelope to a particular prison, cooperative or mobile unit. He believed that the purpose was to inform the recipient of those people in their unit who had been implicated, so that they could search out enemy networks. Sometime later, those who had been implicated were observed arriving at Sang.²¹⁰²

Disappearances and Executions

485.                  A number of witnesses recall prisoners leaving the compound in trucks who, in effect, disappeared.²¹⁰³ Many of these disappearances occurred during the night.²¹⁰⁴ According to one witness, this happened once a week or once a month.²¹⁰⁵ Another said prisoners disappeared every single day.²¹⁰⁶

486.                  Some of these trucks were transferring prisoners to another prison due to overcrowding at

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Sang. Others were taking people away to be executed. Those who were taken away to be executed were told they were being sent to the cooperatives.²¹⁰⁹ Some people were killed inside the main compound of Sang Security Cnetre, but the principal execution site was a bamboo forest approximately one kilometre away.²¹¹⁰ One witness, a former guard, saw executions taking place on three different occasions.²¹¹¹ He witnessed between 30 and 80 prisoners being tied together and blindfolded before guards walked them away to be killed. Prisoners were stripped of their clothing, ordered to squat at the edge of a pit, and were killed by having their throats slit and their abdomens cut open.²¹¹² Children were killed by being swung against a tree.²¹¹³ Gall bladders were removed to be consumed by local cadre.²¹¹⁴

487.                  Two witnesses say that approximately 5,000 people were executed at Sang.²¹¹⁵ A number of witnesses participated in the exhumation of pits near Sang after the fall of the CPK regime, including both former victims and perpetrators.²¹¹⁶ One witness who was on the exhumation committee states that approximately 112 graves were exhumed with each containing 30 to 120 corpses. In total 2,600 skulls were counted. However it appears that not all the graves in the area were exhumed.²¹¹⁷ In addition to corpses, clothing (including womens'),

shackles and ox cart axles were uncovered.²¹¹⁸

***

488. Twenty seven (27) civil parties were declared admissible with regards to Sang Security Center²¹¹⁹, 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 Sang Security Center.