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

 Steung Tauch Execution Site

  

The Specific Case of Prey Tumnob ("Bos") Village

 

Overall Number of Deaths

733.            Beyond the case "Bos", in the absence of any official exhumations, it is not possible to state the exact number of persons who were killed and buried at Steung Tauch. In 1975, Kak Subdistrict (the main source of victims at Steung Tauch along with Doun Tei Subdistrict) was composed of ten villages/cooperatives with a total population of arround 1,000.³¹⁵⁸ One witness provided investigators with a list of 105 names of fellow Kak Subdistrict or cooperative cadre who disappeared, but was not able to confirm whether they had been killed at Steung Tauch.³¹⁵⁹ Another witness, who states that the Bos Roka villagers were killed at this site, does not provide exact numbers.³¹⁶⁰

734.            The Ponhea Krek District Office of Culture came to do research based on the bodies in the graves in 1981, and apparently collected statistical information concerning disappearances at Steung Tauch,³¹⁶¹ but one witness expresses some doubt as to its accuracy,³¹⁶² and no related documents were obtained during the judicial investigation. In 1997, DC-Cam conducted a mapping mission, which identified three burial sites and quoted an un-sourced figure of 1,803 deaths at Steung Tauch,³¹⁶³ which may have been taken from the government statistics. Although a preliminary forensic investigation was conducted at Steung Tauch in 2004,³¹⁶⁴ there is no evidence that the site was ever officially exhumed and there is no memorial at Steung Tauch containing human remains.³¹⁶⁵ Since 1979 there has been opportunistic exhumation of remains,³¹⁶⁶ massive de-forestation and significant importation of surface soil for farming.³¹⁶⁷

***

739. Four (4) civil parties were declared admissible with regards to Steung Tauch Execution Site³¹⁶⁸, 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 Steung Tauch Execution Site.