01005750 Case File No. 002/19-09-2007/ECCC/TC E313 150. Other Khmer Rouge cadres and military personnel testified that they had not been told about the evacuation beforehand. MEAS Voeun, a commander of Regiment 16, Division 1, in the Southwest Zone whose division was responsible for attacking Phnom Penh from the southwest,438 CHUON Thi, who was in the same division, and UNG Ren, an officer in Brigade 14 also attacking from the Southwest, testified that their respective units did not receive orders to evacuate civilians from Phnom Penh.439 SAUT Toeing, NUON Chea’s bodyguard and/or messenger, PEAN Khean, a messenger for the CPK, and SUON Kanil, a morse operator working close to senior cadres of the Central Zone also knew nothing about plans to evacuate Phnom Penh although on 17 April 1975 they saw a lot of people walking out of the city and Khmer Rouge soldiers guarding offices around the city.440 151. Although certain cadres were not informed of the decision to empty Phnom Penh of its inhabitants prior to the final assault, the Chamber is satisfied on the basis of evidence concerning the planning of this movement of population and cadres who were informed of the plan in advance, and the consistent manner in which the evacuation was executed throughout the city, that there was in fact a decision to that 00290514 (“I realized that prior to 17 April 1975, all commanders were invited to a meeting which was about the evacuation of Phnom Penh […] [t]hose commanders subsequently communicated those plans to subordinates”); Report by S. HEDER and M. MATSUSHITA: Interviews with Kampuchean Refugees at Thai-Cambodia Border, E3/1714, February-March 1980, p. 60, ERN (En) 00170751 (“About 10 days before the liberation, the plan to evacuate Phnom Penh was sent down. This came after fall of Neak Loung. There was no set-period in which people were supposed to be gotten out of city but each unit and region was to make its own decision”). 438 T. 3 October 2012 (MEAS Voeun), pp. 88-89, 93-94. 439 T. 3 October 2012 (MEAS Voeun), p. 95; T. 9 January 2013 (UNG Ren), pp. 41-42; T. 24 April 2013 (CHUON Thi), p. 47. 440 T. 19 April 2012 (SAUT Toeung), pp. 78-81; T. 2 May 2012 (PEAN Khean), p. 57; T. 24 April 2013 (CHUON Thi), pp. 30, 45-48, 71; T. 14 December 2012 (SUON Kanil), p. 57; T. 17 December 2012 (SUON Kanil), pp. 21-22; See also, UM Keo Interview Record, E3/5173, 8 May 2008, pp. 2-3, ERN (En) 00272659-60 (“When my unit arrived, I saw LON Nol soldiers had raised white flags, but my unit had no plans to chase or evacuate the people from Phnom Penh because before entering Phnom Penh, my squad had already received orders from the commander … [When] we heard them announce for the people to leave the city, my regimental commander wondered about this, because my unit had received orders to maintain and keep the people as normal”); HIM Han Interview Record, E3/5532, 18 December 2009, p. 3, ERN (En) 0042533 (did not know about the plan to evacuate, only knew of the plan to capture Phnom Penh); See also, Report by S. HEDER and M. MATSUSHITA: Interviews with Kampuchean Refugees at Thai-Cambodia Border, E3/1714, February-March 1980, p.36, ERN (En) 00170727 (A man from Tambon 13, Takeo, in Southwest, stated “[A]s far as I know, the plan to evacuate Phnom-Penh was not announced ahead of time. […][But] I feel that the plan to evacuate Phnom-Penh was part of a general, long standing policy because that was what we had always done before when we liberated an enemy zone. In the past, we evacuated people from the zones we liberated because we were afraid we would be unable to hold these areas against counter-attack and thus unable to maintain peoples’ security. And also because people were source of labour power [sic]. And if we gather up the people we would have forces with which to defeat the enemy.”) Case 002/01, Judgement, 7 August 2014 - Public 83

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