002/19-09-2007-ECCC-OCIJ ЮŲŠ / No: D427 their unit who had been implicated, so that they could search out enemy networks. Sometime later, those who had been implicated were observed arriving at Sang.2102 Disappearances and Executions 485. A number of witnesses recall prisoners leaving the compound in trucks who, in effect, disappeared.2103 Many of these disappearances occurred during the night.2104 According to one witness, this happened once a week or once a month.2105 Another said prisoners disappeared every single day.2106 486. Some of these trucks were transferring prisoners to another prison due to overcrowding at Sang.2107 Others were taking people away to be executed.2108 Those who were taken away to be executed were told they were being sent to the cooperatives.2109 Some people were killed inside the main compound of Sang Security Cnetre, but the principal execution site was a bamboo forest approximately one kilometre away.2110 One witness, a former guard, saw executions taking place on three different occasions.2111 He witnessed between 30 and 80 prisoners being tied together and blindfolded before guards walked them away to be killed. Prisoners were stripped of their clothing, ordered to squat at the edge of a pit, and were killed by having their throats slit and their abdomens cut open.2112 Children were killed by being swung against a tree.2113 Gall bladders were removed to be consumed by local cadre.2114 487. Two witnesses say that approximately 5,000 people were executed at Sang.2115 A number of witnesses participated in the exhumation of pits near Sang after the fall of the CPK regime, including both former victims and perpetrators.2116 One witness who was on the exhumation committee states that approximately 112 graves were exhumed with each containing 30 to 120 corpses. In total 2,600 skulls were counted. However it appears that not all the graves in the area were exhumed.2117 In addition to corpses, clothing (including womens’), shackles and ox cart axles were uncovered.2118 *** 488. Twenty seven (27) civil parties were declared admissible with regards to Sang Security Center2119, 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 Sang 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. 125