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
Steung Tauch Execution Site3070
Location and Establishment
715. The Steung Tauch execution site3071 was situated east of the Mekong River, approximately 7 kilometres south of a town on Highway 7 called Ta Hiev Kraom, and 10 kilometres north of
3072 3073
the Vietnamese border3072 in an area that was heavily forested at the time3073 in Kak Subdistrict, Ponhea Krek District, Kampong Cham Province (a village called Steung Tauch has since grown up in the same area).3074 Applying the CPK's system of identifying administrative boundaries, it was located in Sector 20 of the East Zone (Zone 203).3075
716. The judicial investigation did not reveal any link between Steung Tauch and the execution of prisoners from local security centres under East Zone control.3076 The balance of the evidence concerns a relatively short period, starting in late May 1978, when CPK Centre-led forces seized control of Ponhea Krek District during the purge of the East Zone.3077 Indeed, many arrests and killings at Steung Tauch and in the surrounding area may be dated to within a month of this takeover.3078 One witness heard of the killing of Bos villagers (discussed below) shortly after the seizure of the district.3079 Killings appear to have continued until late in 1978, since residents returning in 1979 saw mass graves "full of fresh, swollen corpses"3080 Nevertheless, it cannot be excluded that some of the bodies found at Steung Tauch may have been victims of executions that occurred before May 1978, or combat victims.3081
Functioning
Structure and Personnel
717. The forested location of Steung Tauch, long an area of military activity pocked with a large number of B52 craters,3082 made it an ideal place for concealed mass executions.3083 The site consists of an undetermined number of burial pits discovered progressively by local residents returning to the district after 1979.3084 Investigators specifically identified four distinct sets of burial pits during the judicial investigation.3085
718. There is consistent evidence that the killings in Ponhea Krek District were conducted by forces under the immediate command of Ke Pork, Secretary of the Central Zone (Old North Zone) and, from 1977, Vice Chairman of the Route 7 battlefield against the Vietnamese (initially under the Secretary of the East Zone, Sao Phim).3086 There is also evidence that, during the events at Steung Tauch, Ke Pork was acting under the command of Son Sen, also stationed in the East Zone at that time,3087 and Nuon Chea.3088 Another witness states that the
Central Zone Military Chairman responsible for collecting the population for execution was called [REDACTED].3089
719. The witnesses describe the purge process, one explaining how "Sao Phim was accused of being a traitor of the State" with the result that those who worked under his supervision were all executed. Another witness notes that, after the first phase of arrest of military cadre, the "coup d'etat" became general, through the successive arrest of the cadre of the sectors, zone, commune com., district com., sector com. and finally the cooperative chairmen.3090
720. The 'purge forces' included both Centre divisions (integrating some elements originating
3091 3092
from the Southwest Zone), and Central Zone divisions. Survivors of the mass execution of Bos villagers recall that their execution detachment, dressed in black, was relieved by other soldiers in green uniforms, whom they were told "would not have spared them".3093
721. There is evidence to suggest that Son Sen and Ke Pork's forces were quartered at a number of locations along Route 7 west of Steung Tauch, extending from the main East Zone office at Suong to the west,3094 through a joint command post at Steung Village,3095 to Sras Pagoda,3096 just west of the Steung Tauch turnoff. An office called "Mai Sak" (teak grove), situated at a former military Division 4 command base south of Route 7 and east of the turnoff to Steung Tauch,3097 appears to have been a base for the soldiers who conducted the execution operations at Steung Tauch, since reprieved witnesses were taken there from the execution site.3098 A number of witnesses refer to the use of large Chinese military trucks during such arrests.3099
Target population
722. There were a number of categories of victims at Steung Tauch, in particular, lower level cadre, related civilians and military personnel. Moreover, the specific case of Prey Tumnob ("Bos") village requires further development.
Lower Level Cadre and Related Civilians
723. Immediately following the purge of the senior East Zone military and political cadre,3100 and subject to the specific case of Bos Village (detailed below), arrests in the area surrounding Steung Tauch appear to have been limited to lower level cadre such as village chiefs or subdistrict chairmen,3101 and persons associated with them, such as family members3102 (although they may also have extended to new people).3103 One witness provided investigators
with a list of 105 names of Kak Subdistrict or cooperative cadre who disappeared at that time.3104 Various means appear to have been used in order to separate the intended victims from the rest of the population: being called to meetings or study sessions, such as a district office at Kandaol Chrum,3105 followed by arrests and disappearances;3106 or receiving a leaflet calling everyone from the cooperative to gather at the local pagoda, where "the group of the chairmen was then told to go to study and to receive new work plan, and has disappeared since then" 2101
724. There is consistent, corroborated witness evidence that 'ordinary' people wearing civilian clothing were executed and buried at Steung Tauch.3108 One witness explains that his brother (a survivor) and a number of other people from Bos Roka Village (Doun Tei Subdistrict) were transferred by truck to Kandaol Chrum, arrested and then sent for execution at Steung Tauch.3109 Other witnesses indicate that the local cadre and associated civilians arrested in surrounding villages (Reus Rokha Thom, Ponley Village and Teuk Yung) were killed at Steung Tauch.3110 Moreover, some witnesses state that low level cadre and civilians were also killed at other sites in the District.3111
Military Personnel
725. There is also evidence that military personnel were buried at Steung Tauch.3112 One witness notes that some pits, "contained male bodies, apparently soldiers, because [he] saw bullets, military clothing and army boots made in China".3113 Witnesses also identified elements leading them to believe that some of the corpses they discovered were Cambodian forces.3114
726. Nevertheless some doubt remains. Thus, although witnesses note that East Zone soldiers were arrested and disappeared during the time when Steung Tauch was being used,3115 there is no evidence linking these arrested soldiers to the bodies found there.3116 Moreover, it should be noted that some soldiers may have been killed whilst resisting the East Zone takeover,3117 that many escaped the purges and joined forces in the jungle,3118 and that, some CPK soldiers or Vietnamese military personnel3119 may have died at Steung Tauch during the armed conflict with Vietnam.3120
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