01005725 Case File No. 002/19-09-2007/ECCC/TC E313 108. The strategy of evacuation of liberated territories was further explained in the Revolutionary Flag of December 1976 and January 1977: Throughout the world, they never capture [or seize] the people. Our line was to capture the people: one, we took him; two, we took them; 100, we took them; 1,000, we took them, and so on until we captured the people from Phnom Penh too. The line of taking away [or drying up] the people from the enemy was very correct. This never happened in the world. When the enemy has the people, the enemy has an army and an economy. When the enemy has no people, the enemy has no military and no economic strength. Our reasoning is correct. Thus, our line is very correct. We fight to capture the people at every location.298 (emphasis added). 109. The same issue of the Revolutionary Flag cited the town of Banam as an example of the application of this strategy: “The fighting […] in Banam Town, expelling the ethnic Vietnamese, the ethnic Chinese, the military, the police; we took everyone, taking away the people from the enemy.”299 110. There were varying interpretations of what it meant to “seize” or “capture” the people. In Philip SHORT’s view “seizing the people” meant to exercise control over the population rather than over territory, and recalled the same tactic had previously been used by the communists in China.300 Witness Stephen HEDER noted that “seize the people” could mean literally physically grasping a group of people but that it could also mean the change in administrative control or management of a contested area.301 NUON Chea agreed with this latter interpretation stating that the CPK needed approaches to the town along National Road Nos. 6 and 7. Now they captured a large part of the city, led 15,000 people away into the countryside, and came within one hundred meters of the governor's mansion. […] After a long and bloody street battle the Communists finally withdrew. Sihanouk later complained bitterly that, but for the treachery of Hanoi in withholding supplies, the town would have been captured.”); Book by P. SHORT: Pol Pot: The History of a Nightmare, E3/9, 2004, p. 246, ERN (En) 00396446 [(Fr) 00639773] (citing an American consular officer in Vietnam who, on the basis of interviews with refugees fleeing relocations in 1973, stated “stories carried back by those who had survived earlier relocations told of people dying en route and forced labour after arrival”). 298 Revolutionary Flag, E3/25, December 1976-January 1977, p. 31, ERN (En) 00491424; The ECCC translation unit on 28 July 2014 amended the translation of this document, changing the phrase “seize the people” to “capture the people”. In addition, the term “drying up the people” has been changed to “taking away the people”. The Chamber has relied on the Khmer original document which remains unchanged, but refers to the revised translation in the French and English documents in this judgement. 299 Revolutionary Flag, E3/25, December 1976-January 1977, p. 31, ERN (En) 00491424. 300 T. 7 May 2013 (Philip SHORT), pp. 79; French Embassy Telegram, Subject: POL Pot Press Conference, E3/1762, 6 October 1977, p. 2, ERN (En) 00751832 (“Drawing inspiration from Mao’s strategy, the CPK decided to surround the towns with countryside”). 301 T. 15 July 2013 (Stephen HEDER), pp. 22-23. Case 002/01, Judgement, 7 August 2014 - Public 58