002/19-09-2007-ECCC-OCIJ ЮŲŠ / No: D427 21. Immediately after the 1954 Conference, the communist movement initially created a public group, the Pracheachon, and sought socialist reform through the democratic process. However, facing the repression by the authorities, the leaders of the Workers Party increasingly considered armed struggle necessary for victory and began preparations for it.33 Already in 1960, the Workers Party established a “Secret Defense Unit”34 to protect its cadres and political activities, as well as to “smash” the enemy. Duch states that this policy was adopted at the first Congress “to entice the forces that can be lured; to neutralize the forces that can be neutralized; to isolate and smash the isolated forces”.35 22. After the disappearance in 1962 of the Secretary of the Workers Party, Tou Samouth, (whose disappearance was never elucidated), a Second Party Congress was held in late February 1963. Saloth Sar became the new secretary and Nuon Chea remained deputy secretary.36 This Congress was held in Phnom Penh, and the participants were again a small group that included Ieng Sary and Sao Phim (both of whom were elected full rights members of the Standing Committee), Ta Mok, Vorn Vet, Son Sen, Ruos Nheum and Kung Sophal.37 A few months later, after the government published a list of 34 known “leftists,”38 Pol Pot and a number of the other named Party leaders, including Ieng Sary and Son Sen, fled the capital. They took refuge at a Vietnamese base on the border, where they later established an office known as Office 100.39 By 1965, they were joined by their spouses Khieu Ponnary, Ieng Thirith and Yun Yat.40 Nuon Chea, whose identity had remained secret and hence was not on the “list of 34”, stayed in Phnom Penh and assumed responsibility for Party operations in the capital and most of the zones.41 23. In January 1965, the Workers Party approved a resolution that rejected the possibility of a “peaceful transition” to socialism, and confirmed that it was “absolutely necessary to use revolutionary violence” in the struggle against the imperialists.42 In a Central Committee meeting held in September or October 1966, the leaders decided to change the name of the Party to CPK (although that decision was kept secret until the next Party Congress), to relocate Office 100 to Ratanakiri province, and that each zone would begin preparations for armed struggle.43 In 1967, several Party leaders agreed to launch a general uprising in 1968.44 Shortly thereafter, a new Central Committee headquarters (also called Office 100) was established in Ratanakiri, a few kilometres away from Office-102, the Northeast Zone Office used by Ieng Sary (who had been appointed Zone Secretary).45 24. On 17 January 1968, pursuant to orders conveyed by Nuon Chea, CPK forces attacked a government army post at Bay Damran village, south of Battambang city and siezed a number of weapons.46 This date was later marked by the CPK as the birth of the Revolutionary Army 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. 14