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

Kraing Ta Chan Security Centre

Interrogation

506. Seven former detainees recall being interrogated at Kraing Ta Chan.²¹⁹⁶ Some were interrogated within hours of arriving at the site.²¹⁹⁷ Interrogations were conducted every day.²¹⁹⁸ Prisoners were accused of being enemies and were asked to identify their leaders.²¹⁹⁹ One former detainee recalls being asked where he was from, whether he was American or Yuon CIA and which rank he held during the Lon Nol era.²²⁰⁰ Another was accused of sexual immorality.²²⁰¹ Others remembered being asked why there was not enough food in the cooperatives, or about simple things such as conflicts while driving carts.²²⁰² At one point, it appears that people were being questioned about their links to Prum San, leader of the Front in the forest.²²⁰³ During the interrogation, a handwritten record of the prisoners' confessions would be taken and later typed up.²²⁰⁴

507. Detainees were sometimes seriously mistreated during interrogation. The CPK used the language "hot" and "cold" to describe the different methods employed when questioning a prisoner. Hot meant beating and other physical methods whilst cold meant pleading, trickery, ruses and coaxing. Cadre learned these techniques from the sector and district.²²⁰⁵ District 105 documents show this language being used by the subdistrict when reporting to the Party about people they had interrogated.²²⁰⁶ Similarly, Kit, in a letter to [REDACTED]

regarding prisoners who had newly arrived, ordered him to: "interrogate harshly and thoroughly" ²²⁰¹

508. Of those former detainees who recall being interrogated at Kraing Ta Chan, two claim they were seriously mistreated during their interrogation.²²⁰⁸ Others state that although they were interrogated, they were never beaten.²²⁰⁹ Former Kraing Ta Chan prisoners and guards witnessed a variety of methods being used to mistreat prisoners during interrogation, including using plastic bags to suffocate, beatings with whips and clubs, the use of pincers to pull noses and earlobes, dousing with acid, pouring water into victims, hanging from the feet, and hanging using ropes tied around the neck.²²¹⁰ Two former detainees recall seeing prisoners die from injuries suffered during interrogation.²²¹¹ Furthermore, another former detainee recalls that he would have to dispose of the bodies of those who had died from injuries sustained during interrogation, insufficient food, and illness.²²¹²

509. A former detainee remembers being interrogated for three days after he arrived at Kraing Ta Chan. He said "During those interrogations they asked us who the traitor leaders were, and when we said that we did not know, we did not know, they beat our thighs and backbones at the shoulders with a rattan stick, and they tied our arms behind us to a small wooden post. Then when we said we did not know, we did not know, they used a plastic cloth and tightly wrapped our heads, faces and ears. That made me unable to breathe and I passed out. Next they took off the plastic cloth and once again [interrogated] looking for the leaders. Then they charged that if no one is your leader, then you must be the leader yourself. They said they would keep me for three more days and then they might interrogate again".²²¹³ A number of former detainees and cadres remember hearing screams coming from the

2214

interrogation room.

Disappearances and Executions

510.                  Orders to kill were sent from the sector secretary to the district secretary who would inform the chairman of Kraing Ta Chan. These orders were handwritten on confessions which had originally been sent from Kraing Ta Chan to the district secretary.²²¹⁵

511.                  Some witnesses say that prisoners were taken away during the night²²¹⁶ in trucks,²²¹⁷ in effect disappearing.²²¹⁸ Guards told them that they were being returned to the cooperatives.²²¹⁹ Their fate was hidden from others by the playing of a loudspeaker that drowned out their screams.²²²⁰ One former prisoner was told that he could not reveal that people were being executed to the other prisoners.²²²¹

512.                  Many of the witnesses interviewed by investigators remember either witnessing executions carried out at Kraing Ta Chan, or seeing the bodies of the victims.²²²² Executions were carried out in many different locations in and around Kraing Ta Chan, including in the detention buildings, in the interrogation room, and at the side of graves that victims had been forced to dig moments before their execution.²²²³ One witness recalls that there were so many bodies buried in the region of the prison that he would sometimes uncover bodies while planting coconut trees.²²²⁴

513.                  Three witnesses give detailed accounts of seeing executions being carried out. Prisoners were blindfolded and then hit at the base of the neck with a blunt weapon such as a cart axel or digging hoe. When they fell over, a sword was used to cut their throat. Young children were killed by having their heads bashed against the trunk of a tree.²²²⁵

514.                 Victims' bodies were buried in and around the Kraing Ta Chan compound.²²²⁶ Either those who were about to be executed dug their own pits, or other prisoners were ordered to dig them.²²²⁷ One former prisoner was made to dig one to two 3m long x 1.5m deep pits per day. Each pit would hold between 30 and 60 bodies.²²²⁸ In 1979, one witness, a subdistrict chairman, took part in the exhumation of graves in the area. He stated that eight pits were exhumed out of which 10,045 skulls were recovered. He recalls that many other pits were left untouched.²²²⁹ Another witness says that approximately 17,000 skulls were counted.²²³⁰ A DK-era report from Kraing Ta Chan's chairman to the district notes that until that date [unknown], they had smashed 15,000 enemies. This suggests that the total number of those

killed at Kraing Ta Chan was greater than 15,000.²²³¹

***

515.                  Eleven (11) civil parties were declared admissible with regards to Kraing Ta Chan Security Center,²²³² 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 Kraing Ta Chan Security Center.