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 

On National, Political, Racial, Ethnic or Religious Grounds

1365. Article 5 of the ECCC Law, which requires the attack to be launched "on national, political, ethnical, racial or religious grounds", refers only to the nature of the attack per se and does not imply a specific discriminatory intent as an element of the underlying offences, such intent being required only for the crime of persecution.

1366. In the instant case, the overall attack was based primarily on political grounds.⁵²⁵⁹ Its implementation entailed dividing the population into categories, which fixed the scope of their rights, with the result that whole segments of the population, whose political or spiritual beliefs were taken to be contrary to the ideological objectives of the Party, were denied their rights.

1367. Even before it took power, the CPK decided that certain categories of persons, who were considered to be beyond redemption, were to be eliminated. These categories grew with time. At the same time, any person who did not comply with the policy of the regime, or who was considered to be an obstacle to its implementation, was categorised as an "enemy" by the CPK, even if, in fact, the person was not an opponent of the regime. All real or perceived opponents of the CPK were arrested and re-educated or eliminated in security centres and worksites.

1368. The objectives of the movements of population were fundamentally political. The purpose was to select populations viewed as potential opponents of the regime's policy (new people in the case of phase 1 of the movement; new people and Chams in phase 2; and the population of the East Zone connected with purged cadre, during phase 3), and to provide the regime with a labour force that it could use at will for its major economic projects.

1369. Moreover, within the purview of this general attack on political grounds, some sub-groups of the civilian population were targeted additionally on account of their real or perceived national, ethnic or racial identity (in particular, Vietnamese and Chams), or their religious identity (Buddhist and Chams).⁵²⁶⁰ As set out in the "Factual Findings - Joint Criminal Enterprise" section of this Closing Order, the implementation of the CPK's common purpose involved the abolition of all "reactionary" religions and the deportation, persecution or destruction of ethnic minorities.