002/19-09-2007-ECCC-OCIJ ЮŲŠ / No: D427 chopping one after another and they were dropped into trenches or wells”.2521 A guard who regularly carried out executions corroborates this execution process.2522 585. Witnesses (who did not observe executions) explained that they saw prisoners transported away from the North Zone security centre by truck and never saw them again. Some saw the trucks coming back empty.2523 Generally no one knew where the prisoners were taken,2524 and attempts to conceal their fate included ordering the doors and windows to be closed so that no one could see the trucks leaving.2525 Witnesses were told that these prisoners were released.2526 One eyewitness was threatened with death if he revealed the real fate of the disappeared persons.2527 586. One civil party recalls that when Song replaced Run in 1978 the number of executions diminished.2528 This is consistent with other statements explaining that in late 1978 some prisoners from the North Zone security centre were released to be tempered in other locations.2529 587. Whilst it is difficult to estimate the number of executions, the evidence suggests it may reach several thousand. Investigations revealed that Trinh Vine Plantation site has been partially exhumed and that human bones found there have been placed in a stupa at Thmei pagoda.2530 The Chairman of a working group established by the Ministry of Culture in the early 1980’s to collect human remains in Siem Reap explains “my group went around to collect skeleton remains, put them in salt-bags, and carried them to be kept in Watt Thmei, which was built in 1983. It was until about 1984 when a stupa was built for keeping the skeleton remains. Places where we collected skeleton remains from were Watt Thaomyuth, Watt Thmei, and [along] the road to the zoo. Not all corpses were collected. The total number of corpses from those three places was about 5,000-6,000. The victims dressed in black clothes, and some had a spoon tied to the waist. There were marks of crack on some skulls, which looked like the impact of clubbing, their arms were tied up to the back by nylon and hammock ropes, and there were also some skulls of little children”.2531 *** 588. Thirty one (31) civil parties were declared admissible with regards to North Zone Security Center,2532 since the alleged crimes described in the application were considered as being more likely than not to be true, pursuant to Internal Rule 23 bis (4). These civil parties have provided sufficient elements tending to establish prima facie personal harm as a direct consequence of the crimes committed at the North Zone Security Center. 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. 150