002/19-09-2007-ECCC-OCIJ ЮŲŠ / No: D427 there is no other eyewitness testimony of any interrogation at Wat Kirirum security centre, and indeed none from the Chanlaoh Kdaong prison or from the Kirirum Pagoda.2440 Executions and Disapperances 565. Wat Kirirum security centre was a “secret place” that people did not dare go near.2441 Witnesses attest to groups of prisoners (ranging from two or three up to approximately 20) being led in shackles by soldiers from the prison up the White Stairs to the pagoda at the top of the mountain.2442 Though two witnesses speak of seeing prisoners being brought back down from the mountain,2443 the vast majority of the evidence supports that groups of prisoners taken up the mountain would not return.2444 One witness states, “I saw the soldiers who had escorted the prisoners return, but none of the prisoners returned”.2445 The CPK cadre would openly state, “When you reach Wat Kirirum, you will have it easy and not have to work anymore”.2446 566. According to one witness, everyone in the surrounding villages knew that they took people to Phnom Sampeou to kill them.2447 Witnesses interviewed did not eyewitness the killings (being prohibited from ascending the stairs) but rather observed the bodies of the victims upon venturing up the mountain after the fall of the CPK regime, discovering numerous dead bodies in a number of locations, including the system of caves at the top of Phnom Sampeou,2448 and inside the pagoda where bodies were still shackled to the walls,2449 bodies hanging from the trees along the road to the caves (including children),2450 as well as in the forest,2451 and in the rice fields between Phnom Kdaong and Phnom Sampoeu.2452 A number of witnesses attest to discovering bodies with their hands still tied behind their backs.2453 567. Witnesses state that inside the caves they saw “hundreds of bodies”2454 and one witness specifies that there were “countless bodies…which were recognizable as the bodies of men, women and children”.2455 Inside the Kirirum Pagoda and scattered alongside the caves witnesses found various execution instruments, some bloodstained, such as wooden clubs, knives, hatchets, long pieces of iron, round steel bars about 60-70 centimetres, bamboo trunks, pieces of wood, handcuffs, wooden shackles and ropes.2456 568. Bodies of victims were deposited in the three caves on Phnom Sampoeu. The caves were the La-ang Teng Khluon or the “Make Up Room”2457 and nearby the La-ang Lakhaon2458 and the La-ang Kang Kep.2459 Typically, the bodies found in the caves were face down and with the rear of their skulls broken.2460 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. 145