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 

 

B. UNDERLYING OFFENCES CONSTITUTING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

 

Other Inhumane Acts Through "Attacks Against Human Dignity"

1434. The constitutive elements of the crime against humanity of other inhumane acts are established.⁵²⁷² These facts concern the conditions of the treatment of the population during the phases 1 and 2 of the population movements, the Tram Kok cooperatives, the working sites of the 1^st January Dam, Kampong Chhang Airport, Prey Sar, Srae Ambel, and Trapeang Thma Dam, as well as the security centres Koh Kyang, Kok Duoch, Kraing Ta Chan, the North Zone security centre, Phnom Kraol, Au Kanseng, Prey Damrei Srot, S- 21 and Sang.

1435. Regarding the actus reus, by depriving the civilian population of adequate food, shelter, medical assistance, and minimum sanitary conditions, the CPK authorities inflicted on victims serious mental and physical suffering and injury, as well as a serious attack on human dignity of similar gravity to other crimes against humanity.

1436. The imposition of such conditions took place during the phase 1 and 2 of the population movements. The population was forced by CPK cadres to move from their places of residence on short notice without proper travel preparations. They were not provided with sufficient food or water during the population movement which, in many cases, was by foot or other physically exhausting or unsanitary means. Although there were cases in which evacuees were provided with provisional shelter during their transfers; this was the exception as in most cases people were left to sleep in the open. In most cases, no medical attention was available despite the presence of vulnerable groups in the populations transferred such as the sick and the elderly. As a result of the inhumane conditions during the population movement, many people developed sicknesses or injuries, exhaustion, and psychological trauma or died.

1437. The imposition of such conditions of life also constituted a recurring pattern in the worksites and cooperatives run by the CPK. In all worksites investigated, workers were denied proper food, medical attention, and sanitation. Food at worksites was insufficient in quantity as well as in quality, especially when taking into account the hard physical labour imposed on the workers. Workers lived and slept in provisional, dirty, overcrowded mass sleeping halls. In many cases, no preventative steps were taken for medical conditions, medical care was provided by medics with no medical training, medicine or equipment. Consequently the treatment was often ineffective and in some cases even exacerbated illness. Additionally, workers who became ill were denied food in many cases. Sanitation was non-existent or provisional. The persons at worksites and cooperatives suffered serious physical and mental harm through these inhumane conditions.

1438.       The imposition of such conditions of life at the security centres such as a lack of proper food, medical attention, and sanitation was a common feature of the treatment of individuals by the CPK. Food rations of the detainees were insufficient. They lived and slept in overcrowded detention cells. Some detainees had to spend night and day with their legs shackled to one another. Many detainees, weakened by poor living conditions and by mistreatment by guards and interrogators, fell sick, in which case they received no or insufficient medical treatment administered by untrained personnel without proper equipment and medicine. Sanitary facilities were wantonly insufficient, with detainees being forced to urinate and defecate in the very places they lived and slept, within close proximity fellow detainees, including persons who were ill with contagious diseases, with either insufficient or without access to facilities to clean themselves, their clothing or their detention cells. This treatment left the individuals in a state of illness, starvation and general physical deterioration as well as severe psychological harm. Some of them died from the consequences.

1439.       With respect to the mens rea, the perpetrators were aware of the factual circumstances that established the gravity of their acts.

1440.       These incidences of other inhumane acts, committed in large part by the cadres, personnel or armed forces and the security forces of the CPK, objectively formed part of the means used to achieve the common purpose aimed at instituting socialism, smashing 'enemies', and defending the revolution, by contributing to the creation of a climate of terror and constraint. These inhumane acts, by their nature or consequences, were part of the attack against the civilian population of which the perpetrators and the people under investigation were aware. They occurred in a systematic way throughout Cambodia during the period under investigation, as many witnesses and civil parties report, thus confirming the generalized character of this crime and clearly demonstrating that it was decided and coordinated by the leaders of the CPK within the framework of the common purpose.

1441.       The Co-Investigating Judges consider that other forms of other crimes of other inhumane acts have been committed, notably: forced marriage, forced transfer and enforced disappearances.