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 (Indictment).  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 November 2011, the Trial Chamber will hear the substantive (sic!) arguments over the criminal charges (genocide, crimes against humanity, penal code of 1956, etc., only the Phase I Movement in April 1975).  Available in Khmer, English and French. Contact the ECCC for a free copy. 

 

CLOSING ORDER

of Co-Investigating Judges You Bunleng and Marcel Lemonde

15 September 2010

IX. ROLES OF THE CHARGED PERSONS

A. NUON CHEA

 Participation in the Common Purpose

 Knowledge and Implementation of this Policy at S-21

 

S-21 Confessions

963. Duch explains that he annotated confessions of S-21 detainees based on Son Sen's instructions, but that when Nuon Chea became his direct supervisor he reduced his annotations, as Nuon Chea did not pay much attention to them.⁴⁰²³ Duch would keep a copy of the S-21 confessions and transmit the original following the means of communication described above.⁴⁰²⁴ As Duch only had direct contact with Son Sen and Nuon Chea, he assumes that confessions were sent directly to them.⁴⁰²⁵ Although the system is not entirely clear, it appears that Duch's supervisors would sometimes receive them through Office K-1. For example, Nuon Chea's messenger [REDACTED] explains that "Sometimes I handed over mails directly to Ta Nuon Chea and sometimes I gave him through Ken, who was the deputy-chairman of Office K-1" ⁴⁰²⁶

964. It therefore seems that, whoever Duch's supervisor was at a given time, the confessions would reach the CPK Centre and then be redistributed to Pol Pot, Nuon Chea and Son Sen. Surviving S-21 confessions on the Case File tend to support this assertion. Based on Duch's statements and the over 4,000 confessions found in and around S-21 premises at the end of the regime, it is believed that Nuon Chea received hundreds if not thousands of S-21 confessions. Nevertheless, it appears that Nuon Chea burned his personal files before the Vietnamese arrived in early 1979,⁴⁰²¹ and that none of these S-21 confessions have survived. Outside of confessions found in and around the S-21 complex, some S-21 confessions were found in a house in Phnom Penh and are believed to have belonged to Son Sen.⁴⁰²⁸ Of these, at least 27 have annotations believed to have been made by Son Sen indicating that a copy was to be sent to Nuon Chea.⁴⁰²⁹ Duch explains that these annotations demonstrate that Son Sen sent confessions to Nuon Chea, who was his superior at the time.⁴⁰³⁰ Some of these confessions also bear annotations that Duch identified as belonging to Nuon Chea suggesting that he was also in possession of these confessions at some point.⁴⁰³¹

965. This evidence also demonstrates shows that confessions were exchanged back and forth between Son Sen and Nuon Chea before and after 15 August 1977. It is not completely clear how these confessions would circulate between Nuon Chea and Son Sen, as Nuon Chea's messenger [REDACTED] never transported documents to offices other than S-21.⁴⁰³² Nevertheless Son Sen's telephone operator in Phnom Penh explains that there were no telegram communications between Son Sen and Nuon Chea "because they generally met and worked together every day" ⁴⁰³³ There is also evidence that S-21 confessions were sent from Son Sen and Nuon Chea to Pol Pot.⁴⁰³⁴ Duch states that he did not know how the S-21 confessions would be submitted to Pol Pot "but it could be that this was done through Nuon Chea's secretary, or maybe Nuon Chea personally delivered the document to Pol Pot" ⁴⁰³⁵

966.            Confessions were at the heart of the CPK system to kill "enemies" both inside and outside Party ranks. Duch explained that the contents of confessions were used as "excuses to eliminate those who represented obstacles," and that "even the Standing Committee, in my opinion, did not really believe in it".⁴⁰³⁶ Regardless of whether they contained false or fabricated assertions, the confessions are said by Duch to have been given formal weight in deciding upon the arrests of those denounced as enemies and in particular by Nuon Chea. A number of confessions bear the annotation of Nuon Chea. For example, asked about annotations on a confession that read "19/4/78, follow-up," Duch stated that they were in Nuon Chea's handwriting and that he must have paid attention to this confession since he underlined the name of Kham My (from Office S-71 ⁴⁰³¹ and who subsequently disappeared⁴⁰³⁸) who was implicated within it. Asked about cross marks and annotations in front of names in confessions Duch explains that he believes they were made by Nuon Chea and he believes that he then sent a copy of the confession to Seng Hon alias Chan (Deputy Secretary of the East Zone and Central Committee member) who arrested Uy Sat alias Kem and send him to S-21 four days after the annotation.⁴⁰³⁹ Duch explains that "normally, implication in one confession was not sufficient for a person to be arrested. It had to occur several times".⁴⁰⁴⁰ He adds that his superiors "knew the confession was not correct and the people who were implicated, there were many of them. This is what we knew but we could not avoid not doing it. And after we talk about that then Uncle Nuon said they knew how to do their work". ⁴⁰⁴¹

967.            In an interview with a journalist, Nuon Chea was shown the S-21 confession of a cadre of the Central Zone Division 174, Nheum Sim alias Saut, and the annotation "one copy to Brother Nuon". Nuon Chea denied he had ever seen the document and said he did not know who wrote the annotation, adding "sometimes they wrote that, but I have never seen it".⁴⁰⁴² Shown the confession of Centre Division 164 Cadre Kung Kien alias Eung Vet and the annotation "presented to Brother Nuon personally" Nuon Chea stated "I don't know this. These documents could be forged" ⁴⁰⁴³ Nuon Chea also stated that S-21 "was established to search the enemy of the country". He defined "enemy " as "somebody who wanted to harm people. It was set up to take care of that matter. Sadly, there were bad comrades there". Asked if S-21 found enemies, he stated "They did. But S-21 comrades went too far. They sometimes did not follow the plan and sometimes they did too much" ⁴⁰⁴⁴