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

Intention to Destroy the Vietnamese as a Group

812.            In the April 1977 issue of the Revolutionary Flag Magazine, the CPK called for the masses to "seek out ... assess ... analyze ... track ... pressure ... capture ...smash the enemy".³⁴⁸¹ It states, "[o]ne very important issue that has to be concentrated on is clearly unmasking again and again the CIA and their agents, the KGB and their agents, the territory-swallowing Yuon and the running dogs throughout the whole Party, throughout the whole army and throughout the people and attacking and breaking the enemy politically and preventing them forever from sneaking into our Party, our army and our people. As for their old roots, some of whom still remain after we have smashed them to bits, it is imperative to whip-up the people to sweep more of them clean and make things permanently clean.³⁴⁸² This can be considered to constitute a direct call to kill all members of the Vietnamese community remaining in Cambodia.

815. The existence of such a policy is corroborated by notebooks of S-21 cadres, which contain evidence that cadre knew they were required to find and kill all Vietnamese people throughout Cambodia. One notebook states, "[f]ind the Yuon: We find them scattered everywhere. We know there are hidden Yuon in the East, in the Northwest, in Phnom Penh which we have not found. But they do in fact exist"³⁴⁸³ Another states "[h]ave we found the Yuon or not? Maximum victory = finding the Yuon. Minimum victory = Finding additional traitor connections who are Yuon agents"³⁴⁸⁴ The same passage goes on to further note that those Vietnamese are hidden throughout Cambodia.³⁴⁸⁵

816. Evidence of implementation of the policy is contained in communications from the zones to the Centre. A report dated 4 August 1978 from West Zone Office 401 reports to "Angkar" of "smashing 100 Vietnamese nationals, small and big, young and old" ³⁴⁸⁶ This report adds that "our measures against the above enemy elements" consisted of "continuing to follow up with research to find all kinds of enemy links who are undercover burrowing from within and to sweep more of them cleanly away, to absolutely cleanse them from the grassroots and various units, offices and ministries". According to a military report from 1 April 1978, [REDACTED], [REDACTED] of Centre Division 164, reported in a secret telephone message to Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary that 120 Vietnamese had been captured and shot in the three days between 27 and 30 March 197 8.³⁴⁸⁷

817. Former cadre also corroborate that the policy was that wherever there were Vietnamese, "everyone had to be careful and to find them and to "sweep them up" ³⁴⁸⁸

818. In 2006, Norodom Sihanouk published a handwritten letter in which he gave details of a meeting with Pol Pot in the later stages of the CPK regime.³⁴⁸⁹ Although this letter does not have the weight as a declaration made as a Written Record of Interview within a judicial investigation, it is considered to be of sufficient weight to be included in the matrix of facts within the Closing Order. This letter states that Pol Pot told Norodom Sihanouk the following:

"Our Kampuchea will not be at peace as long as we Kampucheans have not overcome the evil Yuon race. I started by sending our army to Kampuchea Krom (Cochin-China) with the mission to kill as many men, women and children as possible of the evil race. However, it was not possible to kill them all in their territory. In Annam and Tonkin, tens of millions of them are still alive and kicking. So I have decided to change strategy and tactics. Entirely. It is to lure them to our country, give them the impression that they have won military victory. And once they are inside Democratic Kampuchea, we the men and women of Kampuchea will hack them to pieces. We will chop them up. Back home in Vietnam, when they (the Yuon), realize that their soldiers are not returning, they will send us more divisions. We the people of Kampuchea will continue to chop them up. And, in the final phase, we will enter their territory, Annam and Tonkin, after liberating our Kampuchea Krom, and kill their women and children (boys, girls and infants). That way, the evil Yuon race will be wiped off the face of the earth".³⁴⁹⁰

Anti-Vietnamese War and Purge Propaganda

819.           Anti-Vietnamese propaganda aimed at the Vietnamese armed forces pursuant to the armed conflict with Vietnam and allegations that the Vietnamese had Khmer agents hidden among the Cambodian people alongside agents of the American CIA and Soviet KGB,³⁴⁹¹ while not specifically and expressly targeting remnants of the Vietnamese community in Cambodia, accompanied and greatly encouraged killing those Vietnamese civilians. So did killings of Vietnamese civilians in Vietnam or captured off the coast of Cambodia.

820.            From 1977, the CPK escalated its use of propaganda against the Vietnamese inciting Cambodian hatred of the Vietnamese. The CPK disseminated propaganda that the Vietnamese were expansionist, aggressive, evil, savage, land-grabbing, territory-swallowing annexationists³⁴⁹² who intended to take over Cambodia "eradicating the race and the territory" of Cambodia.³⁴⁹³ The CPK incited a "raging, painful hatred" of the Vietnamese and encouraged cadre to continuously incite this hatred amongst the population.³⁴⁹⁴ Forced "confessions" of captured Vietnamese soldiers were played on the radio which contained incendiary statements to the effect that Vietnam was planning to swallow Cambodia and destroy the Cambodian people.³⁴⁹⁵ Khieu Samphan,³⁴⁹⁶ Ieng Sary,³⁴⁹⁷ Ieng Thirith³⁴⁹⁸ and Nuon Chea³⁴⁹⁹ all participated in the dissemination of such propaganda about the Vietnamese.

821.            In the December 1977-January 1978 issue of the Revolutionary Flag Magazine, the CPK publically congratulated the country for the internal purges during 1977 of "Vietnamese agents" hidden in the revoluationary ranks. It states, "[w]e seized great and systematic victories in 1977 by being able systematically to purge and sweep enemies cleanly away and basically to dig out their main roots ... Arriving at the present, Yuon and Soviet hidden forces boring from within basically no longer exist ".³⁵⁰⁰ The magazine called for further killings, stating "[t]urning to organising, our important virtue this year is that we have purged and clean out bad elements and hidden enemy elements boring from within, making our Party maximally clean ... In the days to come, however, we must pay attention to continuing to

conduct further purges ...It is necessary to continue to conduct further purges because enemy elements are not yet thoroughly gone".³⁵⁰¹

822. The July 1978 edition of the Revolutionary Flag Magazine contains further calls for the killings of Vietnamese people. It states "the Yuon enemy ... have been our national enemy from the beginning up through the present, and will be our enemy in the protracted future as well . The national duty of all of us is to struggle to fight to eliminate our aggressive, expansionist, territory-swallowing and genocidal Yuon enemy. Just like the Kampucheans of our current generation, absolutely no Kampucheans of any subsequent generation will lay down arms and stop fighting the aggressive and expansionist/territory-swallowing and genocidal Yuon enemy of the Kampuchean race".³⁵⁰² The magazine goes on to congratulate the cooperatives for their role in the killings, stating "[e]ven more particularly, in the great mass movement to attack and smash the aggressive, expansionist, territory-swallowing, genocidal Yuon enemy and in the great mass movement to sweep cleanly away the concealed enemies boring from within who are CIA agents, Yuon running dog agents and KGB agents, cooperatives throughout the country have played an important leading role in carrying out activities fulfilling their missions, bringing about a strategic victory for the nation, the people, the Party and the revolution".³⁵⁰³ These instructions were coupled with a description of past purges of alleged traitors within the Party ranks and the people.³⁵⁰⁴

823.           On 15 May 1978, the CPK broadcast a policy over the Phnom Penh home radio service stating that because Cambodia was a smaller nation than Vietnam, "in terms of numbers, one of us must kill 30 Vietnamese". The broadcast states: "Using these figures, one Cambodian soldier is equal to 30 Vietnamese soldiers. Then how many Vietnamese are equal to 10 Cambodian soldiers? The answer must be 300. And 100 Cambodians are equal to 3,000 Vietnamese. And 1,000,000 Cambodians are equal to 30,000,000 Vietnamese. We should have 2,000,000 troops for 60,000,000 Vietnamese. However 2,000,000 troops would be more than enough to fight the Vietnamese, because Vietnam has only 50,000,000 inhabitants. We don't have to engage 8,000,000 people. We need only 2,000,000 troops to crush the 50,000,000 Vietnamese, and we would still have 6,000,000people left". ³⁵⁰⁵

824.           The broadcast goes on to state, "[t]his matter does not concern the armed forces alone. The entire Party, army and people must be made fully aware of these lines, views and stand".³⁵⁰⁶ Indeed, the policy was broadcast over the radio to the Cambodian people and was further communicated to CPK cadre. In the notebook of Mam Nai alias Chan, a senior S-21 interrogator who took notes during lessons given by Duch,³⁵⁰⁷ he notes that the "principle designated by the Party" is generally one against 30 but went up to one against 90 in Svay

Rieng.³⁵⁰⁸ He states that this policy must be implemented by "[s]weep[ing] clean all the enemies, accurately".³⁵⁰⁹ The notebooks of Pon and Tuy, two other S-21 interrogators also refers to the "partyprinciples" of one against 30 and one against 90 in Svay Rieng.³⁵¹⁰

825.            Other CPK radio broadcasts demanded "high revolutionary vigilance" to "protect the Party and defend the revolutionary administration of the worker-peasant class by eliminating both the enemy remnants planted with and the enemy aggressors coming from without "³⁵¹¹ with specific attention given to the need for "completely eliminating from all our cooperatives and Cambodian territory both the enemy remnants planted within and the enemy aggressors from without, as well as all their activities" ³⁵¹² and for government offices and departments to do the same.³⁵¹³ The army vowed "to fight and exterminate the annexationist enemy and other enemies of all stripes so that they will be completely wiped out from our Cambodian territory".³⁵¹⁴ The Ministry of Information and Propaganda stated "should Vietnam refuse to withdraw its forces from the sacred territory of Cambodia, there is only one solution left for the Cambodian Revolutionary Army and people: that is to crush and exterminate to the last man the aggressor Vietnamese enemy who has come to swallow up Vietnamese territory". ³⁵¹⁵

826.            Other instances of killing, "smashing" and attacking Vietnamese civilians and destruction of Vietnamese property were communicated to Office 870, Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary.³⁵¹⁶

827.           Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Office 870 were also kept informed by detailed reporting from lower-level cadre on mass killings of Vietnamese civilians in Vietnam. On 14 August 1977, a telegram sent to Mo-81 and copied to Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary reports that "the Kampuchean army has committed mass killings of1,000 ordinary Vietnamese people at Ha Tien in Kien Giang province ".³⁵¹⁷

828. A CPK Directive from Office 870, dated 1 January 1979 contains instructions on fighting

"the aggressive and expansionist land-grabbing Yuon enemy".³⁵¹⁸ The Directive was addressed to "the entire Kampuchean people, the entire Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea, and all the combatants male and female, all the cadres in every office and ministry". The directive orders the people to "raise the spirit of revolutionary vigilance to always be high to track down and search out Yuon enemy agents and not allow them to hide anywhere at all, to eliminate them and gain timely mastery" .³⁵¹⁹

829. Two days later, Office 870 gave further instructions about how to effectively attack the "aggressor Yuon", both on the battlefield and within the party. These instructions ordered that "the Zone, Sector, and District Command Committees at all levels and the military cadres and the bases concentrate on studying over and over the line of attack laid out above so that it will be its most effective, and [propose they] fire up our cadres and combatants to defend the Party and the Revolution of Democratic Kampuchea, defend our people, our cooperatives, and all of our rice, farms, crops and produce".³⁵²⁰ It goes on to order that every level of the Party and military units, ministries, and offices must: "[t]ake careful and firm measures to eradicate espionage, pacifist agents, and the various types of psychological warfare used by the enemy, regardless of form. Be most vigilant on the individual battlefields and near the battlefields among the military, the people, the male and female combatants, the ministries and offices, and the cadres".³⁵²¹

830.           Committee 870 gave orders on how to attack the invading Vietnamese troops. A directive dated 3 January 1979 demonstrates the intention of the members of Committee 870 to "push away enemy, destroy enemy, and surely Yuon will cry like monkey and scream all over the forests before they are completely abolished [destroyed] from our sacred land".³⁵²² The directive also contains orders on how it was to be disseminated through the party: "[t]his advice must be disseminated and studied by party [cadres] at zone, regions, and districts, cooperatives, by battle fields commanders, division commanders, regiment commanders, battalion commanders, company commanders, platoon commanders, unit commanders, and soldiers, commanders at each target, many times until it is fully understood" ³⁵²³

831.           The killings may also have been linked to a purge of the East Zone of alleged traitors, whom Nuon Chea identified as "embedded enemies boring holes in side, enemies that were the arms and legs of the Yuon",³⁵²⁴ but also extended to Vietnamese outside the East Zone.