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 (or, Indictment). The Closing Order of the Co-Investigating Judges forms the basic document from which all the parties (co-prosecutors, lead co-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 November 2011, the Trial Chamber is hearing the substantive (sic!) arguments over the criminal charges   (genocide against Buddhists, genocide against Vietnamese, genocide against Cham Muslims, crimes against humanity at the 200 prisons, mass crimes in countless killing fields, Eastern Zone purges, penal code of 1956, etc.) of only the Phase I Movement in April 1975.

 Available in Khmer, English and French.  Contact the ECCC for a free copy.  

 

CLOSING ORDER (or, INDICTMENT)

of Co-Investigating Judges You Bunleng and Marcel Lemonde

15 September 2010

 

IX. ROLES OF THE CHARGED PERSONS

C. KHIEU SAMPHAN⁴⁶¹⁶

Participation in the Common Purpose

 

Security Centres and Execution Sites

 

Knowledge and Implementation of this Policy at S-21

1177.        Khieu Samphan has stated that he did not know about the existence of S-21 during the period of the CPK regime and it appears that he never went to S-21.⁴⁸¹⁸ Khieu Samphan also claims that he never met Duch during the CPK period.⁴⁸¹⁹ However, Duch gave evidence on a number of occasions during interviews with the Co-Investigating Judges and during his trial that he had a meeting with Khieu Samphan on the morning of 6 January 1979.⁴⁸²⁰ Duch states that Khieu Samphan issued instructions to him relating to the entry of Vietnamese forces into Phnom Penh, namely, that S-21 staff should "maintain quiet and not panic"⁴⁸²¹ Duch states that he accepted the instructions and disseminated them in S-21.⁴⁸²²

1178.        Duch has also attested that the Standing Committee knew that torture was practiced at all security centres and that every person sent to S-21 was to be executed.⁴⁸²³ As a regular attendee and participant in the Standing Committee meetings, it is likely that Khieu Samphan was aware of the practice of torture and execution at S-21. It is also likely that Khieu Samphan heard the Vietnamese confessions that were recorded for propaganda purposes at S-21 and broadcast on the radio.⁴⁸²⁴

Links to S-21 through Arrests and Killings

1184. Khieu Samphan stated that he never participated in any meetings where purges or arrests were decided⁴⁸²⁵ and did not know the extent of arrests before 1979.⁴⁸²⁶ He stated that Pol Pot did not involve the Standing Committee in decisions about the arrests of important cadres within the Party.⁴⁸²⁷ However, it appears that Khieu Samphan knew of and was involved in the purges of senior leaders of the CPK, as well as people in the 870 offices and in the Ministry of Commerce and related offices.

1185. Duch stated that Khieu Samphan was one of only 13 people who had the "fully-fledged right" to smash enemies inside and outside the ranks according to the 30 March 1976 directive.⁴⁸²⁸ With respect to the senior leaders of the CPK, Duch explains that the decision to arrest members of the Central Committee or high-level CPK cadres had to be made collectively by the Standing Committee.⁴⁸²⁹ As a regular attendee and participant in the Standing Committee, Khieu Samphan would have known of and participated in the arrest and subsequent execution or suicide of standing committee members, zone and autonomous sector secretaries, and ministers. Indeed, Khieu Samphan has acknowledged that he knew of the arrest and elimination of senior leaders and has given justifications for the purges inside the ranks of the CPK. He stated in a 1980 interview that there were many undercover Vietnamese agents in the CPK "who obtained important positions. They exercised their power. Some of them were in charge of major zones".⁴⁸³⁰ He further stated that in 1975, around half of the Central Committee and the Standing Committee were Vietnamese agents.⁴⁸³¹ In an interview in 2006, he stated that Vorn Vet and Sao Phim were arrested because they were Vietnamese agents.⁴⁸³² He stated that the arrest of East Zone cadres "led to an internal sweeping clean of a chain of persons".⁴⁸³³

1186. Additionally, the 870 Political Office where Khieu Samphan worked, was "tasked to monitor suspected members of the party for the standing committee"'.⁴⁸³⁴ Though denying that he replaced Doeun as Chairman of Political Office 8 70,⁴⁸³⁵ Khieu Samphan admits to involvement in following up and investigating allegations that an elderly cadre of the West Zone was an agent of the Vietnamese, stating that it was concluded that the allegations were falsely made by those who were in fact themselves Vietnamese agents.⁴⁸³⁶ This may be a reference to the Deputy Secretary of the West Zone, Pal. The Zone Secretary, Chou Chet alias Sy, attempted to "reshuffle" Pal's forces, but Pal was trusted by Pol Pot and Nuon Chea. The outcome, instead, was the arrest of Sy in March or April 197 8.⁴⁸³¹ Duch stated that this arrest occurred pursuant to a decision made at a Standing Committee meeting to which Khieu Samphan was specifically invited by Pol Pot in order to educate him about the purge process.⁴⁸³⁸ Duch gave evidence in 1999, and then subsequently confirmed his evidence in two interviews with the Co-Investigating Judges, that he had been told by Chhim Som Aok alias Pang that Khieu Samphan attended a meeting with the Standing Committee on the issue of arresting people, including Sy.⁴⁸³⁹

1187.       Pursuant to the 30 March 1976 Central Committee decision on the "right to smash, inside and outside the ranks," Political Office 870, then still chaired by Doeun, was empowered to exercise this right in various units "surrounding the Centre Office,"⁴⁸⁴⁰ part of its wider powers to effect purges in such units.⁴⁸⁴¹ One victim was Phok Chhay alias Touch, described by Duch as "clerk of Office 870 who we could also say was Pol Pot's secretary" ⁴⁸⁴² Although Duch believes this killing was ordered by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea and Son Sen, ⁴⁸⁴³ he also states that Khieu Samphan can reasonably be assumed to have been aware of it.⁴⁸⁴⁴

1188.       It also appears that Khieu Samphan witnessed the arrest of Vorn Vet on 2 November 1978⁴⁸⁴⁵ as it occurred at the headquarters of the Standing Committee (Office 870),⁴⁸⁴⁶ the office of which Khieu Samphan was then the leading cadre.

1189.       With respect to the 870 offices, approximately 209 people were arrested from Political Office 870 and S-71 and sent to S-21 during 1975-1978 as set out in the section of the Closing Order regarding the Factual Findings of Crimes for S-21. One witness, who worked in a branch of Office 870, states that Khieu Samphan brought up the issue of Pang's arrest during a study session. She stated that Khieu Samphan told the study group that Pang "had been arrested and taken away because he was a traitor collaborating with the Yuon".⁴⁴''⁴¹

1190.       With respect to the Ministry of Commerce, approximately 482 people were arrested and sent to S-21 during 1975-1979 as set out in the section of the Closing Order regarding the Factual Findings of Crimes for S-21. A witness who worked at the Ministry of Commerce states that more than half of his unit were purged under the guise of being called away to study.⁴⁸⁴⁸ He states that, about one week before the Vietnamese entered Phnom Penh in January 1979, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea came to the Ministry of Commerce and informed the workers that "calls for study sessions are no long conducted; we have to be united to fight the enemy"⁴"⁴⁹ This witness interpreted that statement as meaning that the workers in the Ministry of Commerce would no longer be purged.⁴⁸⁵⁰ Referring to Yuk Chuong alias Chorn, a member of the Industry Committee, Duch also states that Khieu Samphan was "surely consulted before Chorn's arrest. His confession was sent by me to the superior who was supposed to communicate it to Khieu Samphan, in order to inform the latter so that he could express his opinion on the arrest of the other persons accused in the confession" ⁴⁸⁵¹