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Cambodian government at the time the interview was recorded. At the beginning of
the interview, NUON Chea emphasised that his recollections were incomplete and
that it was difficult to recall particular events going back over many years. The
Chamber finds his answers in the interview consistent with other statements he made,
including in court. There was no suggestion that he was being untruthful in the
interview or that the transcript was inaccurate. In court, NUON Chea acknowledged
that he had “mostly” told the truth to KHEM Ngun in this interview, noting only that
he had possibly withheld certain information from him.199 As it is the truth of the
contents of the interview, not the reliability of KHEM Ngun’s record of the interview
which is at issue, the Chamber is satisfied that the transcript of the interview
constitutes a reliable basis for factual findings.
81.
The first developments of the history of communism in Cambodia are closely
linked with the fight against French colonial authorities and especially the armed
struggle after World War II, carried out by Khmer Issaraks and the Indochina
Communist Party.200 In 1951, the Indochina Communist Party, led by HO Chi Minh
and with branches in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia,201 held a Congress attended by
NUON Chea. During the Congress, the Vietnamese-led Party renamed its branches,
with the branch in Cambodia becoming the Khmer People’s Revolutionary Party
(KPRP).202
82.
In late 1953, after NORDOM Sihanouk had successfully launched his “Royal
Crusade for Independence,” Cambodia again became autonomous. Following the
signing of the Geneva Accords in 1954 which nominally ended the first Indochina
199
T. 15 December 2011 (NUON Chea), p. 45 (“as for whether I was truthful or not, it depended on
the situation at that time, it depended on what I saw Khĕm Ngun as a person. At some point, I talked
truthfully, but at some other point, I refrained from saying things”).
200
Book by E. BECKER: When the War was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution,
E3/20, 1986, pp. 51-53, ERN (En) 00237756-58 (In addition to communists and Issaraks, the
nationalists of the Democrat Party asked for Cambodian independence but disavowed armed resistance
and promoted moderate social change through legal means).
201
T. 5 December 2011 (NUON Chea), p. 51 (“Everything was under the control of Vietnam from the
Hanoi headquarters or from the Ho Chi Minh headquarters”), pp. 63-64.
202
NUON Chea Interview by KHEM Ngun, E3/3, Undated, p. 5, ERN (En) 00184656; T. 5
December 2011 (NUON Chea), p. 64; T. 30 January 2012 (NUON Chea), pp. 40-41; Article by NUON
C.: Past Struggle of Our Kampuchean Peasants From 1954 to 1970, E3/131, p. 6, ERN (En)
00716414.
Case 002/01, Judgement, 7 August 2014 - Public
42
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