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) 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 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

 

IX. ROLES OF THE CHARGED PERSONS

C. KHIEU SAMPHAN⁴⁶¹⁶

 

Participation in the Common Purpose

Movement of the Population

1152.       Through his various roles in the CPK, Khieu Samphan participated in the movement of the population from towns and cities to rural areas, as well as from one rural area to another.

Phase One

1153.       [REDACTED] states that Khieu Samphan attended a meeting to decide on the movement of the population of Phnom Penh in early April 1975.⁴⁷³⁴ The meeting was at Office B5, the office of Pol Pot, at Taing Porn Village, Kampong Tralach Subdistrict and District, Kampong Chhnang Province.⁴⁷³⁵ [REDACTED] stated that Khieu Samphan took notes and "gave his opinions and impressions and agreed to the plan to evacuate the people" ⁴⁷³⁶

1154.       Another witness gave evidence that Khieu Samphan entered Phnom Penh on or around 20 April 1975. On 17 April 1975, this witness travelled to Phnom Ath Ros to rest and to prepare to enter Phnom Penh with a group of CPK cadres.⁴⁷³⁷ She stated that Khieu Samphan, Hu Nim and Son Sen travelled to meet each other at Phnom Ath Ros and were "getting ready to enter and occupy" Phnom Penh.⁴⁷³⁸ She stated that Khieu Samphan, Hu Nim and Son Sen stayed at Phnom Ath Ros for three nights before travelling to Phnom Penh.⁴⁷³⁹

1155.       Khieu Samphan stated that he entered Phnom Penh 7-10 days after 17 April 1975.⁴¹⁴⁰ He stated that he was not aware of the plan to move the population from Phnom Penh until he entered Phnom Penh and overheard a group of soldiers talking about it.⁴⁷⁴¹ He has publicly stated that he does not think the population of Phnom Penh should have been moved.⁴⁷⁴²

1157. Khieu Samphan issued a number of statements over the radio in the months leading up the movement of the population, relating to the situation in Phnom Penh. Between January and April 1975, Khieu Samphan repeatedly broadcast details of what was happening in Phnom Penh, claimed that the "traitorous Lon Nol clique" was on the brink of collapse, and ordered and appealed to the population of Phnom Penh to fight them in order to liberate the nation.⁴⁷⁴³ He also called for all foreign embassies and foreign organizations in Phnom Penh to evacuate their personnel in order to avoid suffering casualties.⁴⁷⁴⁴ Pursuant to CPK policy, he urged the population of Phnom Penh to relocate to the countryside, calling on it to "cross over to our liberated zone," declaring there was no rice in Phnom Penh⁴⁷⁴⁵ and promising them that cadres and combatants in CPK-controlled territory were standing by to assist them with their "new lives" in rural areas, and in particular would be provided with "with adequate supplies and adequate means of production" for agricultural production. ⁴⁷⁴⁶

1158. He also called on Party cadres and its "combatants" to "sweep the enemy pacification activities from the entire liberated zone "⁴⁷⁴⁷ and generally further uphold their "revolutionary vigilance against enemy schemes" ⁴⁷⁴⁸ On 26 February 1975, Khieu Samphan released a communique on behalf of the FUNK stating that the "seven traitors in Phnom Penh ... Lon Nol, Sirik Matak, Son Ngoc Thanh, Cheng Heng, In Tam, Long Boret and Sosthene Fernandez" should be killed⁴⁷⁴⁹ and calling for the people of Phnom Penh to contribute to the nation's liberation by "turning your guns against them"⁴¹⁵⁰ He noted that the "traitorous Phnom Penh clique is now ... on the verge of total collapse" ⁴⁷⁵¹ and ordered the people to "attack the enemy more vigorously and incessantly, both at the forefront and in the rear, in order to fulfill the duty of completely and permanently liberating our nation and people"⁴¹⁵² On 13 April 1975, he declared in a broadcast speech that although Lon Nol and other "super- traitors" had fled the country, other traitors in addition to the seven he had named in February were attempting "to continue the treachery of the last bunch of traitors," and called for their overthrow.⁴⁷⁵³

1159. On 13 August 1975, Khieu Samphan explained on the radio that "immediately after liberation" the FUNK was confronted with the question of how to solve the problem of having a starving population in Phnom Penh and that they "solved" this problem by mobilizing the people to increase production throughout the country.⁴⁷⁵⁴ He repeated these assertions during his 18 August 1976 speech at the fifth Non-aligned Summit Conference in Colombo, stating that "we have fundamentally solved the problems of livelihood for our Cambodian people since liberation, notably with regard to food"⁴¹⁵⁵ Khieu Samphan has subsequently given a number of statements endorsing and defending the movement of the population from Phnom Penh on the basis that the population was starving.4756

1160. Norodom Sihanouk has stated that Khieu Samphan told him by letter not to return to Phnom Penh in April 1975 as the CPK needed to evacuate the city as a precaution due to the development of a deadly contagion.⁴⁷⁵⁷ Khieu Samphan stated in an interview with the Co- Investigating Judges that he does not remember exactly, but that it is possible this letter may have been dictated by Pol Pot.⁴⁷⁵⁸

1161. A newspaper article dated 28 April 1975 asserts that Khieu Samphan had entered Phnom Penh the week before, dressed in a simple black pajama suit and a krama and "proclaiming the triumph of his new leftist regime" ⁴¹⁵⁹ Additionally, a New York Times Report dated 9 July 1982 details an interview with Khieu Samphan in Kuala Lumpur in which he purportedly admitted to participating in the collective decision to forcibly transfer the population of Phnom Penh.⁴⁷⁶⁰

Phase Two

1162. The decision to move people from the Central (Old North), Southwest, West and East Zones was made by the Standing Committee after they visited the Northwest Zone between 20 and 24 August 1975.⁴¹⁶¹ While there is no record of who participated in this visit, even if Khieu Samphan was not part of this mission, Ieng Sary has stated that Khieu Samphan attended an enlarged Standing Committee meeting in September 1975 to discuss implementing a dictatorship and strengthening agriculture and industry.⁴⁷⁶² A Party document coinciding with the date of this meeting specified the need to relocate new people to the North and Northwest zones.⁴⁷⁶³

Phase Three

1163. It appears from several civil party applications that Khieu Samphan was involved in the movement of people from the East Zone in 1977 and 1978. These reports suggest that Khieu Samphan monitored the movement and distributed kramas and food to the people during the movement.