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 theVietnamese

Introduction

786.            The Vietnamese may be considered to be an ethnic group³³⁷² as they share a common language and culture and because they identify and distinguish themselves as Vietnamese and are identified and distinguished by others as such.³³⁷³ The CPK also referred to the Vietnamese being a national group³³⁷⁴ in a number of public statements.³³⁷⁵ Furthermore, CPK cadre also considered Vietnamese to be a racial group³³⁷⁶ based on biological and particularly matrilineal descent, treating them as a group based on the hereditary physical traits identified with the geographical region of Vietnam.³³⁷⁷

Demographic Evidence

792. The Demographic Expert Report, dated 30 September 2009, concluded that there were approximately 400,000 Vietnamese in Cambodia in 1970. Almost half of them were either expelled to Vietnam or killed by the Lon Nol regime that same year and another 150-200,000 left Cambodia after the CPK took power in April 1975. The report states that around 20,000 Vietnamese were still living in Cambodia in April 1975 and "all 20,000 of them died from the hands of the Khmer Rouge during the years from April 1975 to January 1979 ".³³⁷⁸

793. There appears to have been a very small number of Vietnamese people who remained in Cambodia throughout the CPK regime and were not killed. Two witnesses give evidence that they knew of a Vietnamese person who avoided being killed by physically hiding or by disguising him or herself as Khmer.³³⁷⁹ Another three witnesses state that they were aware of one or two Vietnamese people who were not killed but did not know why they had not been killed.³³⁸⁰ One witness who had a part-Vietnamese mother states that although the majority of her family was killed, including her mother, she was kept alive because "there were not many Vietnamese in my village and... my husband knew how to sew, particularly the beret caps and uniforms of the Khmer Rouge".³³⁸¹

Movement of Vietnamese Civilians From Cambodia To Vietnam

794. Initially the CPK focused on expelling all Vietnamese people from Cambodian territory and sending them to Vietnam. This policy commenced as early as 1973 ³³⁸² and was further

3383                                                                                                                                        3384

applied in 1975 and 1976.³³⁸³ It was applied in Prey Veng and Svay Rieng³³⁸⁴ and throughout Cambodia.³³⁸⁵ Vietnamese people were transported by foot, train and boat to Vietnam.³³⁸⁶ It appears that only Vietnamese people were permitted to return to Vietnam³³⁸⁷ and there may have been language tests to establish their supposed Vietnamese citizenship.³³⁸⁸ Some witnesses state that they were made to go to Vietnam³³⁸⁹ and some state that Vietnamese people could choose to accept an invitation to go to Vietnam.³³⁹⁰ Some witnesses suspected that it was a trap and that people were actually being taken to be killed.³³⁹¹ The Cambodian spouses and families of Vietnamese people were not permitted to go to Vietnam, so it appears that many Vietnamese people who had Cambodian spouses or one Cambodian parent chose to remain in Cambodia.³³⁹²

795. One witness states that the CPK authorities gathered the Vietnamese to transport them by boats to their country and that those who did not leave were searched for and taken away for execution".³³⁹³ Another witness corroborates this, describing what happened as follows: "As for the ethnic Vietnamese, even if they had struggled and worked in the units or were ordinary people, they were sent back to Vietnam. Later on, any ethnic Vietnamese who had refused to

go or who had disguised themselves as ethnic Khmer were arrested, taken away, and killed".³³⁹⁴

796. The April 1976 Revolutionary Flag Magazine appears to address the expulsion of Vietnamese. It refers to the "one type of foreigner that was very strongly poisonous and dangerous to our people. These people have what is called a poisonous composition since they came to wolf us down, came to nibble at us, came to swallow us, came to confiscate and take away everything, and came to endanger our nation and our people, and they have caused us to lose much territory in the past". The magazine goes on to state "[however, our revolution, in particular on 17 April 1975, sorted this issue out cleanly and sorted it out entirely. We assume that we sorted it out permanently. For thousands of years we were unable to resolve this issue and did not resolve it. The exploiting classes did not only not sort this out, they sold whole sections of land to these foreigners. Now, we have sorted out this issue. Our revolutionary workers and our revolutionary peasants and our people, our Revolutionary Army, sorted this issue out completely and permanently. The dimensions of this victory are huge, very profound, very magnificent... That is, the great typhoon of the national movement and the great typhoon of our democratic revolution swept hundreds of thousands of these foreigners clean and expelled them from our country, got them permanently out of our

territory". ³³⁹⁵

Killings of Vietnamese Civilians in Prey Veng and Svay Rieng

797. Numerous witnesses give evidence that waves of killings of Vietnamese civilians occurred in Prey Veng Province³³⁹⁶ and in Svay Rieng Province³³⁹⁷ in 1977, 1978 and 1979.³³⁹⁸ Using the CPK's system of identifying administrative boundaries, Prey Veng and Svay Rieng Provinces encompassed part or all of the East Zone Sectors 20, 22, 23 and 24.

798. CPK cadre approached the arrest and killing of these Vietnamese people in a methodical way, going from house to house or calling meetings to register ethnic Vietnamese people.³³⁹⁹ Pre- prepared lists of Vietnamese were used when conducting arrests,³⁴⁰⁰ which one witness states was part of orders from the "upper level".³⁴⁰¹

799. Sometimes Vietnamese people would be told that they were being taken away for study,³⁴⁰² to a meeting,³⁴⁰³ or to cut rattan vine,³⁴⁰⁴ would be put into horse carts and taken away. Often the father of the family would be taken away first and then, within a short period of time, the mother and children also taken away.³⁴⁰⁵ One witness, whose Vietnamese mother was arrested, states that the only reason she survived is because the villagers told the CPK cadre that she had "Khmer blood".³⁴⁰⁶ Many of the witnesses gave evidence that all the Vietnamese in their village were taken away, or that they knew of Vietnamese people who had disappeared forever, but did not know where they were being taken.³⁴⁰⁷ Some witnesses give evidence that the killings took place in Veal Tauch, Chamkar Kuoy Village, Prey Veng

District.³⁴⁰⁸

800. Witnesses identify village,³⁴⁰⁹ subdistrict³⁴¹⁰ and district³⁴¹¹ cadre as being involved in the arrest of the Vietnamese in Prey Veng. Some witnesses give evidence that the arrests were upon orders of the Sector 20 Committee³⁴¹² or the upper echelon³⁴¹³ and identify that the killings occurred both before³⁴¹⁴ and after³⁴¹⁵ the purge of the East Zone which was implemented mainly by cadre from the Southwest Zone.

801. A similar pattern of arrests and killings of Vietnamese people occurred in Svay Rieng Province.³⁴¹⁶ In 1977³⁴¹⁷ and 1978,³⁴¹⁸ witnesses saw Vietnamese people in Svay Rieng being arrested and taken away by subdistrict³⁴¹⁹ and district³⁴²⁰ CPK cadre. None of the witnesses knew where they were being taken to but give evidence that they knew they were taken to be killed.³⁴²¹ One witness, who gives evidence that the "Vietnamese line" was arrested, states that "I do not know where they took them: they took them away and they disappeared. They killed them; they did not take them anywhere" .³⁴²²

Killings of Vietnamese Civilians outside of Prey Veng and Svay Rieng

802. The killing of Vietnamese civilians was not limited to Prey Veng and Svay Rieng Provinces, thus demonstrating that it was organised as a national policy. A mass execution of Vietnamese people occurred in mid-to-late 1978³⁴²³ at Wat Khsach, in Yeang Village, Russei- Lok Subdistrict, Siem Reap Province.³⁴²⁴ Vietnamese people were arrested from Svay Leu District³⁴²⁵ and Chikreng District³⁴²⁶ (Siem Reap Province, North Zone) and taken to Wat Khsach. The CPK took measures to ensure that only Vietnamese people were targeted. Arrests were conducted with the use of a statistical list of Vietnamese people.³⁴²⁷ One witness states that he heard a CPK cadre ask the people who had been arrested "[a]re all of you Vietnamese?"³⁴²⁸ Another witness heard the CPK cadre asking "[a]reyou Yuon or Chinese?" and stated that those who replied they were Vietnamese were killed and those who were Chinese were released.³⁴²⁹ This is corroborated by a further witness who met a woman who had been released from Wat Khsach because she claimed to be Chinese.³⁴³⁰ The Vietnamese people were not interrogated or detained for long in Wat Khsach. They were killed within 24 hours of being arrested,³⁴³¹ by bamboo clubs, and the bodies were put in grave pits and a well.³⁴³² Some witnesses saw the killings³⁴³³ and another heard the sounds of them striking the people and heard screaming.³⁴³⁴ One witness stated that approximately 100 Vietnamese people were killed within the three hours he watched and estimated that around 600-700 were killed in total.³⁴³⁵ Another witness stated that approximately 25 people were killed in the one hour he watched and estimated that approximately 100 people were killed over two or three successive occasions.³⁴³⁶ Vietnamese men, women and children were killed.³⁴³⁷

803.            Other witness statements describe that Vietnamese civilians were targeted and killed throughout Cambodia, including in the following places: Battambang³⁴³⁸ and Pursat³⁴³⁹ in the Northwest Zone; Mondulkiri³⁴⁴⁰ in Autonomous Sector 105 in the North East Zone; Kampot,³⁴⁴¹ Takeo³⁴⁴² in the Southwest Zone; Kratie³⁴⁴³ in Autonomous Sector 505; Koh Kong³⁴⁴⁴ in the West Zone; and Kroch Chhmar and Khsach Kandal³⁴⁴⁵ in the East Zone.³⁴⁴⁶

804.            There is also evidence that Vietnamese people were detained and killed at a number of security centres under investigation by the Co-Investigating Judges, including: S-21 in Phnom Penh;³⁴⁴⁷ Kraing Ta Chan Security Office in the Southwest Zone;³⁴⁴⁸ Prey Damrei Srot Security Centre and Koh Kyang Security Centre in the West Zone;³⁴⁴⁹ Kok Kduoch Security Centre (Kok Kduoch) in Autonomous Sector 505;³⁴⁵⁰ and Au Kanseng Security Centre in the Northeast Zone.³⁴⁵¹ In June 1977, 209 Vietnamese troops of Jarai nationality were captured³⁴⁵² and later executed en masse at the Au Kanseng Security Centre.³⁴⁵³ The arrest of these people had been reported by the Secretary of the Northeast Zone to "Respected Brother" and copied to Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary.³⁴⁵⁴

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