002/19-09-2007-ECCC-OCIJ ЮŲŠ / No: D427 Disappearances and Executions 546. Prisoners were blindfolded and taken away at night with their arms tied behind their backs, in effect disappearing.2369 The fate of prisoners who disappeared was hidden by several means including offering vague explanations such as telling the victim to go “to see Angkar”,2370 to study2371 or to go back home.2372 According to one witness, guards never talked about the killings in front of the prisoners and made people dig pits without telling that they would be used as graves.2373 547. Orders to kill prisoners came from the chairman or from the other three cadres in the Prey Damrei Srot leadership.2374 It appears that the leadership of the prison not only ordered but also carried out executions themselves on several occasions.2375 A former guard who carried out executions attests that all serious offence prisoners had to be killed; as for light prisoners, it depended on whether they could be reeducated or not.2376 548. Some witnesses recall observing executions and seeing dead bodies in grave pits.2377 Detainees were struck with bamboo clubs or trunks and once dead were pushed into pits.2378 Executions took place close to the prison at the coconut and banana plantation and bodies were put into pits that had been dug by the prisoners during the day. After execution, some bodies were cut into two or three parts before being put into the pits to be used as fertiliser for the plantations.2379 A former guard who took part in the execution process states “During the period [1978] I was at the Damrei Srot Prison, I saw many burial pits, but I only dug three of them myself. Each pit held about ten to fifteen persons. I estimate there were eight to ten pits”.2380A villager who dug up 10 coconut trees in 1979 states that he saw corpses underneath all of them and added “there were hundreds of coconut trees and there were corpses underneath all coconut trees”.2381 According to [REDACTED], 20 prisoners were executed at Prey Damrei Srot,2382 however given the entirety of the evidence described above the number was without a doubt much higher. 549. Finally, a former guard attests to hearing from other soldiers that female prisoners were raped by cadres before being killed.2383 [REDACTED] denied these allegations in his interview2384 and when prisoners were asked they stated that no rapes took place at Prey Damrei Srot.2385 *** Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, National Road 4, Choam Chao, Dangkao Phnom Penh Mailing address: P.O. Box 71, Phnom Penh; Tel: +855(0)23 218914 Fax: +855(0) 23 218941. 141