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

D. TREATMENT OF SPECIFIC GROUPS 

 Treatment of the Cham

 

Treatment of the Cham 1975-1977

750.           At a conference of political and military cadre ranging from the Centre down to the lower levels (until the district level) in May 1975, Pol Pot and Nuon Chea effectively called for the abolition of the Cham religion, presenting policies which included the abolition of all religions that were deemed reactionary.³²²⁵ Nevertheless the CPK continued via public radio broadcasts to formally treat the Cham as "Moslem Cambodians" and proclaiming their freedom of religion.³²²⁶ However, after October 1975, all public mention of them by the radio ceased in the context of a wider denial of the existence of any national minority groups in Cambodia. Although senior Party leaders³²²⁷ and official publications continued³²²⁸ to speak of a Cambodian people as "the Kampuchean nation and the Kampuchean people that included both ethnic Khmer and other nationalities", such talk evidently ceased at some point in 1976. This followed the promulgation of the Democratic Kampuchea constitution of January 1976 which was silent about the existence of minority groups.³²²⁹

 

754. Chapter 15, Article 20 of the Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea purported to regulate religion by stating "[every citizen of Kampuchea has the right to worship according to any religion and the right not to worship according to any religion. Reactionary religions which are detrimental to Democratic Kampuchea and Kampuchean people are absolutely forbidden" Duch gave evidence to the Co-Investigating Judges that the CPK Constitution was "deceitfully written" and that this article was "a lie".³²³¹ This is corroborated by [REDACTED], who states "when they issued the Constitution they said that all religions

were reactionary".³²³²

755. The Cham sometimes attempted to complain about the prohibition on their religion by invoking the Constitution. According to weekly report from CPK Sector 5 in the Northwest Zone, which was sent to Brother Zone Secretary, M-560 and Archives, the "17 April elements from Phnom Penh who were Cham nationals" protested against the food which was imposed on them by the cooperative kitchen and referred to the Constitution. The author of the report states that: "for this situation, we have taken special measures, that is, look for their string, look for the head of their movement in order to sweep clean" .³²³³

756.           Witnesses (Cham and non-Cham) from throughout Cambodia consistently state that the CPK banned the practice of Islam and forbade the Cham from praying,³²³⁴ seized and burned Qurans,³²³⁵ closed or destroyed mosques,³²³⁶ or used them for other purposes such as communal dining halls,³²³⁷ store houses,³²³⁸ or facilities for pigs.³²³⁹ Many witnesses (with the exception of three amongst them)³²⁴⁰ state that Cham were forced to eat pork.³²⁴¹ Religious leaders and learned Islamic scholars were arrested and/or killed.³²⁴² Cham women were forced to cut their hair and were prohibited from covering their heads.³²⁴³ The Cham language was prohibited.³²⁴⁴ Cham traditional dress was prohibited.³²⁴⁵

757.           According to some witnesses, the orders to attack the Cham culture came from "Angkar",³²⁴⁶

from "the highest organization", from "village and section leader", and from "the village leader and quarter leader ",³²⁴⁹ and any Cham who refused to follow the directives of the CPK would be beaten,³²⁵⁰ arrested and/or killed.³²⁵¹

758. In September and October 1975, two Cham rebellions occurred within weeks of each other in two villages in the Kroch Chhmar District of Kampong Cham Province: in Koh Phal Village (an island in the Mekong River, Peus I Subdistrict), and in Svay Khleang Village (Svay Khleang Subdistrict).³²⁵² Witnesses state that after the rebellions, the persecution towards the Cham significantly increased.³²⁵³ Many people were arrested,³²⁵⁴ whole villages were moved away,³²⁵⁵ dispersed amongst ethnically Khmer villages³²⁵⁶ and the male heads of many households were killed.³²⁵⁷ The Koh Phal Village Chairman estimates that out of the 1,864 original residents of Koh Phal, only 183 survived the regime.³²⁵⁸ Another witness estimated that out of 1,306 original residents, 267 survived.³²⁵⁹

759.            One witness states that in 1972 he had been asked to prepare population statistics of Villages 5 and 6 of Svay Khleang Subdistrict. He explains that in 1972 there were 1,242 families in these villages, but in 1979 only 170 families remained.³²⁶⁰

760.            It appears that district and subdistrict CPK cadres were involved in the suppression of the

rebellions.³²⁶¹

761.           A number of documents from this period suggest that there were lines of communication from the lower levels to the upper echelon and that the activities of Cham people at the grassroots level were communicated to the upper echelon, including to Nuon Chea.³²⁶² A telegram entitled "Telegram 15" dated 30 November 1975 outlines the CPK upper echelon's policy to "break up" the Cham and forcibly transfer them from the East Zone to the North Zone.³²⁶³ This telegram was sent to Pol Pot and copied to, amongst others, Nuon Chea. The authenticity of Telegram 15 was confirmed by a witness who worked translating telegrams for Centre Office K-1 during the regime, who states that the Chairman of the Telegram Unit made the decision to copy this telegram to Nuon Chea, adding that the Standing Committee may have been involved in solving this problem.³²⁶⁴