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

In light of the HISTORIC (!) start of MOST COMPLEX (sic!) trial hearings beginning on 27 June 2011 and again ANOTHER HISTORIC (!) START of this same MOST COMPLEX (sic!) on 21 Nov. 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 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 (sic!) arguments over the criminal charges (e.g. genocide, crimes against humanity, penal code of 1956 - sic!).  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

Wat Tlork Security Centre

 [One of two security prisons in the Eastern Zone where Ms. Seng Theary was detained as a child]

Arrest and Detention

653. One witness interviewed was detained at Wat Tlork (along with his family), commencing in late 1977.²⁸³⁶ Witness statements affirm that the Wat Tlork prison population was essentially composed of civilian Cambodians, mostly Khmer (as opposed to foreigners or ethnic minorities),²⁸³⁷ arrested for reasons including stealing food and immoral behaviour.²⁸³⁸ People evacuated from Phnom Penh in 1975 and former Khmer Republic civil and military personnel appear to have been detained in subdistrict prison facilities such as Wat Boeng Rai, rather than Wat Tlork itself.²⁸³⁹ Nevertheless, the witness who was detained understood that his family had been arrested in late 1977, "because my father was an Officer in the LON Nol army, or my mother was the Chinese descendant, or we were classified as the new-people", and noted that other people were detained from around the district after the Vietnamese incursion in 1977.²⁸⁴⁰ Witnesses state that prisoners were sent to Wat Tlork from other security centres in the district,²⁸⁴¹ or were brought directly to Wat Tlork from surrounding villages and subdistricts of Meanchey Thmei District.²⁸⁴² Although

men, women and children were held at Wat Tlork,²⁸⁴³ one witness with regular access to the detention facility stated that the detention centre near the pagoda held essentially men.²⁸⁴⁴

654. Some prisoners were first brought to the office in Tlork Village for interrogation.²⁸⁴⁵ One witness observed security officers "walking people whose arms were tied toward the security office, with a security person riding a bicycle and hitting the prisoners with a whip".²⁸⁴⁶ Later, they were led on foot from the office to the detention centre near Tlork Pagoda, and were sometimes beaten along the way.²⁸⁴⁷ In other cases, they were taken directly to the detention centre.²⁸⁴⁸

655.                  The detention centre near the pagoda was surrounded by barbed wire, and security personnel guarded the three wooden prison buildings.²⁸⁴⁹ Strict discipline was imposed.²⁸⁵⁰ There is evidence that some prisoners were shackled or had their hands tied behind their backs, and prisoners categorised as "serious" offenders were not allowed to work outside the prison compound.²⁸⁵¹ The former prisoner states that all but the youngest children were shackled upon arrival in the detention facility and in the evenings.²⁸⁵²

656.                  The former prisoner adds that there was not enough food,²⁸⁵³ and another witness observes that the prisoners were in a weakened state and were pale.²⁸⁵⁴ The only medicine available was home-made and ineffective.²⁸⁵⁵ The prisoners were made to work whilst in detention. "Light" offenders, including children,²⁸⁵⁶ were made to work outside the detention centre, under guard, including dragging fishing nets, tending to beasts, collecting buffalo manure and pulling carts to repair dykes; they were worked harder than non-prisoners and had wooden shackles on both legs.²⁸⁵⁷ One witness saw beatings of prisoners who worked outside the compound, because they did not work well.²⁸⁵⁸

657. In the absence of any CPK documents relating to Wat Tlork, it is difficult to estimate the total number of prisoners held there between 1975 and 1978. The detention centre could hold two to three hundred prisoners at any one time²⁸⁵⁹ and one witness who observed the daily activities over the years in question, confirms that prisoners were brought in on foot

"two or three times a day, with a total of five to six persons being arrested'.²⁸⁶⁰