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admission, NUON Chea attended the meeting and participated in the decision to
evacuate the cities.378 Other attendees included POL Pot, SAO Phim, KOY Thuon, Ta
Mok, VORN Vet, ROS Nhim, and SON Sen.379 Those attending the June 1974
meeting endorsed the evacuation of Phnom Penh.380
134. Although IENG Sary claimed he did not attend the June 1974 meeting, a claim
supported by NUON Chea381, he admitted in an interview with Stephen HEDER that
he had discussed the evacuation of Phnom Penh with POL Pot upon his return from
China. Based on the timing of this discussion, and the testimony of PHY Phuon
placing IENG Sary at the June 1974 meeting, the Chamber is satisfied that this
conversation occurred around the same time as, if not during, the June 1974 Central
Committee Meeting. With the prompting of the Chinese leadership, IENG Sary asked
POL Pot what plans were in place following the liberation of Phnom Penh for its three
million inhabitants. POL Pot told IENG Sary that “they already had all the experience
they needed […] [I]t was a very easy matter to resolve […] because we Khmer had
clear-cut notions in this regard after having been able to solve the problem in Stung
Treng and Kracheh [Kratie] provinces. So the solution to the problem was to
evacuate.”382 The events at Oudong were also discussed extensively and, according to
Philip SHORT, “it was the success [of] what happened at Oudong, which convinced
the leadership that this was the way they should go with Phnom Penh […]”383 Despite
POL Pot’s representation to the international community that the plan to evacuate
Phnom Penh was not “pre-established,” it is clear that the matter was in fact discussed
(NUON Chea), p. 2; Based on his interviews with Phy Phuon, Philip SHORT initially placed this
meeting in September 1974, but later testified that he now believed it took place in June 1974. See
Book by P. SHORT: POL Pot: The History of a Nightmare, E3/9, 2004, p. 256, ERN (En) 00396456;
T. 9 May 2013 (Philip SHORT), pp. 73-75, 129-132.
378
T. 13 December 2011 (NUON Chea), pp. 26-29; T. 30 January 2012 (NUON Chea), pp. 14-17; T.
26 July 2012 (ROCHEOM Ton alias PHY Phuon), pp. 10-11, 39, 43-44; See Section 3: Historical
Background, para. 133.
379
T. 26 July 2012 (ROCHOEM Ton alias PHY Phuon), pp. 10-11, 39, 43-44.
380
T. 26 July 2012 (ROCHOEM Ton alias PHY Phuon), pp. 16, 23-25.
381
T. 14 December 2011 (NUON Chea), pp. 2-4.
382
IENG Sary Interview by Stephen HEDER, E3/89, 17 December 1996, pp. 5-6, ERN (En)
00417603-04 (Although the matter of whether it would be a full evacuation or a partial evacuation of
only the peasants was not determinatively resolved).
383
T. 7 May 2013 (Philip Short), pp. 79-80.
Case 002/01, Judgement, 7 August 2014 - Public
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