002/19-09-2007-ECCC-OCIJ ЮŲŠ / No: D427 PART ONE: FACTUAL FINDINGS I. 18. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The existence of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) was not officially announced until September 1977, when the party had already been in power for more than two years (it appears that the term “Angkar”, which had been in use since the 1940s meant “Organization”, and described the Party as a whole but also the leaders at different levels, without further specificity). However, groups espousing communist ideology had been in existence in Cambodia for many years beforehand. Despite the fact that the party has had a tendency to re-write its own history,25 it is possible to ascertain its development through a number of key dates of relevance to the judicial investigation.26 19. One of the first communist organizations in the region was the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), which was strongly influenced by Vietnamese communists and founded in 1930. The party was officially dissolved in 1951 and its former members were supposed to establish separate revolutionary organizations for each country. The new party created in Cambodia was the Khmer People’s Revolutionary Party (“KPRP”), which tried to dominate the Issarak groups fighting for independence.27 Independence was finally proclaimed in 1953 and recognized at the 1954 Geneva Conference. 20. Official CPK documents and statements, post-17 April 1975, identify the 1960 Congress, at which the KPRP became a “Workers Party”,28 as the real starting point of the Cambodian communist movement. Around 20 people are believed to have participated in this Congress, including Nuon Chea (elected Deputy Secretary of the Party), Saloth Sar alias Pol Pot (Member of the Standing Committee), Ieng Sary and Sao Phim (alternate members of the Standing Committee), and Vorn Vet.29 The August 1975 issue of Revolutionary Flag (an official Party magazine) states that “the strategic and tactical lines of the Communist Party of Kampuchea were clearly and fundamentally correctly drawn-up in 1960 during the First Party General Assembly (even though it is true that our Party was created in 1951)”.30 On 30 March 1976, the Central Committee decided to “Designate the birth of the Party back to 1960, not using 1951, in order to not let it get attached to others-to be clearly separate”.31 Nuon Chea states that without himself and Pol Pot, the CPK would have been dominated by the Vietnamese.32 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. 13