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

   

PART THREE:  LEGAL FINDINGS 

 XIII. CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY  

A. "CHAPEAU"ELEMENTS

Directed Against the Civilian Population

1362. The target of the attack was the entire population of Cambodia, which was composed mainly of civilians as defined by humanitarian law, whether they be Cambodian or foreign civilians.

1363. Although some groups of civilians within the general population considered to be more politically unreliable (such as the "new people", the ranking officers and officials of the Khmer Republic and national minorities) were subjected to specific treatment (dealt with hereinafter), the target of the attack was indeed the population as a whole. Even people enjoying "full-rights" status, such as peasants, had been expropriated and had suffered other serious violations of their rights well before April 1975, and they continued to be victims of such violations thereafter.

1364. Furthermore, whilst members of Cambodian military and security forces were also among the targeted population, the CPK drew no distinction between soldiers and civilians in implementing its objective of societal transformation and elimination of "enemies". Former ranking officers and officials of the Khmer Republic (as well as their subordinates and family members) were targeted because they were considered likely to be hostile to the CPK. CPK military personnel were often disarmed before being redeployed for non-military activities dictated by the regime, particularly during the purge of "bad elements" (such as, for example, during the dispatch of forces from the East Zone to the Kampong Chhnang Airport construction site); thus, they no longer exercised their functions. In any event, once it has been established that an attack targets a civilian population, international law does not require all the victims to be civilians.