002/19-09-2007-ECCC-OCIJ ЮŲŠ / No: D427 Special programming intended for Khmer in Vietnam – what the CPK called Kampuchea Krom – was broadcast about the Khmer-Vietnamese border conflict, the relocation of Khmer Krom to Phnom Den in Cambodia and the alleged persecution Vietnam. 112. of Khmer Krom by 333 Confessions of Vietnamese prisoners of war, who had been interrogated at S-21, were broadcasted over the radio,334 in an attempt to show that the Vietnamese had entered Cambodian territory.335 One witness states that Vietnamese prisoners of war were interrogated in the battlefield and the taped interviews were sent to the radio for broadcast.336 V. MILITARY STRUCTURE A. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY OF KAMPUCHEA 113. The Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea (“RAK”) was a core institution within the CPK governed Democratic Kampuchea.337 CPK policy relied heavily on the implementation of is goals by forceful means, making the military an important part of its government apparatus. From the outset, the CPK considered that “for self-defense and self-liberation it is imperative to use violence, whether political violence or armed violence. It is imperative that the people be armed, that is, there must be an army … in order to defend the people, to defend the revolution, and to go on the offensive to counter-attack the enemy”.338 114. The CPK asserted that its armed forces originated in “a Secret Defence Unit.339 By 1968 these forces had been upgraded into “armed guerrilla units”.340 17 January 1968 marks the official launch of an armed struggle and the birth of the CPK “revolutionary army”.341 According to the official line of the Party, by 1969 “the preconditions for an army were already there … In some locations, in the major Zones, there were already companies, many units, platoons, squads, teams. Other locations had just platoons, squads, and teams. However, those forces were the ranks of a Revolutionary Army!”.342 In March 1970, the latter was officially designated as the “Cambodian People’s National Liberation Armed Forces” (CPNLAF). 115. The formal reorganization of the armed forces was proclaimed in July 1975, at a gathering that was officially described as an “important political conference of the CPK Centre for approximately 3,000 representatives of every unit of the Revolutionary Army,” which was addressed by “the comrade chairman of the High-Level Military Committee of the Party”.343 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. 33