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

Kok Kduoch Security Centre²⁸⁸⁷

Location and Establishment

667. Kok Kduoch security centre was located in Keng Prasat Village, Sambo Subdistrict, Sambo District, Kratie Province.²⁸⁸⁸ Applying the CPK's system of identifying administrative boundaries, it was located in Sector 505, Northeast Zone.²⁸⁸⁹ In late 1976 or early 1977, Sector 505 was removed from the Northeast Zone and became an autonomous sector.²⁸⁹⁰ Kok Kduoch was created in 1970²⁸⁹¹ and appears to have been operational as early as 1971

or 1972; it was fully operational from 1975-1979. The security Centre was related to Prasral, a worksite where prisoners who were considered light offenders were sent to.²⁸⁹⁴ Further associated to Kok Kduoch were Koh Sam Tauch Island security centre located on an island in the middle of the Mekong River²⁸⁹⁵ and Sre Thnaot women's prison located west of Kok Kduoch.²⁸⁹⁶ Prior to coming to Kok Kduoch, prisoners were sometimes taken to Ahar Office, which was located approximately one kilometre from Kok Kduoch, for interrogation.²⁸⁹⁷

668. Kok Kduoch consisted of two long bamboo buildings with thatched roofs that each housed between 20 to 30 prisoners.²⁸⁹⁸ At Prasral, prisoners were housed in more than 10 huts, with two long shelters of about 30 to 35 metres, and several smaller shelters.²⁸⁹⁹

Functioning

Structure and Personnel

669. Ta Yem was Sector 505 Secretary from 1971. Some time not long after 17 April 1975, he was transferred to another post in Phnom Penh.²⁹⁰⁰ Yi alias Born Nan followed as secretary until 1978, when he was arrested.²⁹⁰¹ The next sector secretary was Moeun.²⁹⁰² The last sector secretary was [REDACTED].²⁹⁰³ Succesive Deputy Secretaries of Sector 505 included Kang (arrested in Phnom Penh on 19 April 1977)²⁹⁰⁴, Kuon (arrested on 21 March 1978)²⁹⁰⁵ and Khon.²⁹⁰⁶

670. Sambo District was governed through a committee consisting of a district secretary, a deputy secretary and others responsible for areas such as economics, security, politics and the military.²⁹⁰⁷ District security in Sambo was run by a three-man committee which oversaw Kok Kduoch and Prasral²⁹⁰⁸ and was sometimes referred to as Security Unit 32²⁹⁰⁹.

671. A number of persons have been identified as secretary of Sambo District successively including Phan, Ny, and [REDACTED].²⁹¹⁰ Moreover, a witness²⁹¹¹ states that Cheth alias Chhun Yaung alias Chhoem Young, who was a member of Sector 505 Committee in charge of Sambo District²⁹¹²and was later arrested by the sector committee for allegedly raping a woman in approximately 1976,²⁹¹³ also oversaw Sambo District Committee as the district secretary. Cadre supervising the security situation in the district and the prison sites, included Ung Samon²⁹¹⁴ (arrested in 1977)²⁹¹⁵, Phang Ny (arrested on 9 April 1978)²⁹¹⁶, and [REDACTED]²⁹¹⁷. [REDACTED], who stayed in office until late 1978 was the last head of the District Security Committee and the Chairman of Kok Kduoch prison according to several guards and prisoners.²⁹¹⁸ Purges in Sector 505 were carried out by troops sent in from the West Zone, and the victims were replaced by cadre from the West and Southwest Zones.²⁹¹⁹

672. Nuon Chea was often seen visiting Kratie Sector.²⁹²⁰ After the sector cadre would receive orders from the Centre in Phnom Penh, they would call meetings at the lower level, to implement the orders.²⁹²¹ Weekly meetings about the enemy situation, production and health of the people, were held at the district level.²⁹²² Furthermore, weekly meetings between the subdistrict and the district and the district and subdistrict were organized.²⁹²³ If a person in the village was indentified as an enemy, the district level would subsequently arrest that person in the subdistrict.²⁹²⁴ The Revolutionary Flag magazine was generally distributed among the youth in the sector although it does not appear from the interviews whether all guidelines that were mentioned in the magazine were followed.²⁹²⁵

Arrest and Detention

673. Although not all prisoners were told the reason for their arrest,²⁹²⁶ most were accused of being enemies,²⁹²⁷ or Khmer Republic soldiers,²⁹²⁸ or connected to the Vietnamese or for being bad elements including "Khmer Sa".²⁹²⁹ The prisoners were either new people²⁹³⁰ or persons belonging to ethnic minorities such as Kroal, Phnong, Cham, Khmuon and Mil.²⁹³¹ In 1977-1978, the prison population increased because of the arrest of many East Zone soldiers.²⁹³² CPK cadre from the subdistrict level were arrested when attending a meeting at the district office.²⁹³³ A former guard at Kok Kduoch states that he witnessed how Vietnameses were selected: "At that time they rounded up only pure Vietnamese families (husband-wife were ethnic Vietnamese) to put in the building ... Later they put them in vehicle and took them downward without knowing where they went to".²⁹³⁴

674. There are varying accounts as to the number of prisoners, but it seems that there were approximately 40 to 100 prisoners at Kok Kduoch at any given time including men, women and children.²⁹³⁵ According to a former guard, in 1977-1978, the number of prisoners increased to approximately 200 to 300 at any given time, with about 50 considered as serious offenders.²⁹³⁶100-200 prisoners were detained at Prasral, most of them sent from Kok Kduoch.²⁹³⁷

675. Prisoners at Kok Kduoch were categorised as either serious or light offenders.²⁹³⁸ Prisoners considered as serious or political prisoners or traitors of the regime were kept shackled.²⁹³⁹ Light offences included not performing work correctly, speaking incorrectly, immorality, or eating food which was forbidden.²⁹⁴⁰ Light prisoners were left unshackled and allowed to move freely within the prison compound.²⁹⁴¹ Some witnesses state that an additional "middle" offence group would be restrained with one shackle.²⁹⁴² At Prasral, light-offense prisoners who were sent from Kok Kduoch and Ahar Office after interrogation were held

unshackled.²⁹⁴³

676. Many witnesses state that the living conditions at Kok Kduoch and Prasral were very harsh²⁹⁴⁴ and that the food was insufficient.²⁹⁴⁵ Former prisoners state that there was no medical treatment,²⁹⁴⁶ and that many prisoners died of disease, exhaustion and

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starvation.

677. Prisoners at Kok Kduoch and Prasral were sometimes mobilised to work together, and went back and forth between the sites.²⁹⁴⁸ The prisoners were ordered to farm, plant rice, potatoes or corn, or work on dams or waterwheels.²⁹⁴⁹ Whilst working, prisoners were guarded at all times.²⁹⁵⁰ Those who escaped, stole food or broke the rules were beaten or put in shackles or deprived of their food rations.²⁹⁵¹ Prisoners had to work all day with a break during noon and sometimes had to work at night.²⁹⁵²

678. One witness who worked at Kok Kduoch security centre states that in Sector 505 prisoners detained for "moral offences" who were widows or single persons were married based upon a policy of the upper echelon.²⁹⁵³

679. One of the last persons responsibles for the Sambo District Committee, states that he released prisoners who were held for light offences from Kok Kduoch after his arrival, but this was not corroborated by any other witness.²⁹⁵⁴