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) make 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

D. IENG THIRITH

 

Participation in the Common Purpose 

Cooperatives and Worksites

1233.       Through her various roles in the CPK, Ieng Thirith participated in the establishment and operation of cooperatives and worksites.

Participation in the Creation of this Policy

1234.       Ieng Thirith assisted with the planning of this policy through her role in the Council of Ministers⁵⁰⁰¹ and as Minister of Social Affairs.⁵⁰⁰²

1235.       As Minister of Social Affairs, Ieng Thirith attended the meetings of the Council of Ministers where this policy was planned and where instructions were given with a view to achieving it. At one of these meetings, dated 31 May 1976, after the Council of Ministers presented the situation of the revolution, Ieng Thirith expressed her "total agreement with Angkar's comments". ⁵⁰⁰³ Ieng Thirith also reported the strengths and weaknesses of her Ministry, and what was needed to achieve the objective of "making three tons [of rice per hectare]".⁵⁰⁰⁴ She reported on the lack of experience and training of the medical staff, the shortage of staff, and other problems related to technical shortcomings.⁵⁰⁰⁵ She also said she believed Angkar could "help and solve [these] problems for the sake of the movement throughout the country", that training courses "particularly in the medical field" were organised, that "brothers and sisters endeavour to know their respective duties in order to be with the movement of three tons [per hectare]" and that the Ministry was "in close relations with Chinese technical experts " for training purposes, as per the instructions from Angkar.⁵⁰⁰⁶

1236.       The duties of the Ministry of Social Affairs with respect to this policy were also discussed at a meeting on 10 June 1976, attended by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan. At that meeting, Ieng Thirith and some of her Ministry's leading cadres reported on the activities of the Ministry and its sections, including the production and distribution of medicine, and their research on the treatment of various diseases. They were then instructed by Pol Pot and Nuon Chea on how to address issues related to the people's living standards and the training of

staff.⁵⁰⁰⁷

1237.       The system of cooperatives and worksites was discussed in CPK publications,⁵⁰⁰⁸ which Ieng Thirith would have read and distributed within her Ministry.⁵⁰⁰⁹

Endorsement of this policy

1238.       Given her roles, Ieng Thirith is likely to have attended the conference on 11-13 April 1976 where the People's Representative Assembly reaffirmed this policy.⁵⁰¹⁰

1239.       After the CPK regime, Ieng Thirith claimed that "modern, traditional, preventive medicines, medicines that were never made before" were produced during the CPK regime, including "20 vaccines" at Chroy Changvar laboratory, and that medicines were regularly sent to people throughout the country, but that their distribution was stopped by the local cadres.⁵⁰¹¹ She also admitted the shortcomings of this policy in an interview with a journalist in 1980 where she acknowledged that it was a mistake to apply a radical policy of self-sufficiency and to refuse international aid.⁵⁰¹²