002/19-09-2007-ECCC-OCIJ ЮŲŠ / No: D427 work separately from the local “base people”1203 (although one witness from Pursat Province states that they “lived, worked and ate like the people at the worksite”).1204 Finally, there is evidence that, just before the arrival of the Vietnamese troops, people moved from Prey Veng and Svay Rieng Provinces were gathered from all the surrounding working sites and sent to Rumlech Pagoda, Bakan Leu District (Sector 2 in the Northwest Zone)1205 where they were shot.1206 293. Some persons who had been moved were sent to security centres,1207 where they were imprisoned1208 and suffered serious mistreatment,1209 or were sent directly to execution sites.1210 One witness describes how his father was killed in Pursat Province and how he would also have been killed, had his mother not protested, saying “I have siblings working as cadre in the Southwest Zone”, which saved his family, together with “approximately more than 30 families”.1211 Another witness saw persons who had been made to move, still carrying their belongings, shot by CPK forces near Pursat River.1212 Return 294. Most of the persons who survived the voyage from the East Zone returned to their villages as soon as they could.1213 One witness was imprisoned by the Vietnamese for two months before he returned to his home village.1214 Some returning witnesses saw dead bodies scattered along the national road,1215 or graves full of decomposed bodies, bones and skulls.1216 Reasons Given to the Population for the Movement 295. At the meetings held prior to the population movement, people were generally told that they were being sent to an area where there was more food and fertile land for cultivation.1217 One witness states that he was told he had to go to Pursat Province as part of the “great leap forward”.1218 Another witness reports a speech by a cooperative chairman, who said that "Battambang Province needs people to work the rice fields in order to sort out the national interests”.1219 296. Ta Mok is said to have indicated, during a meeting with Northwest Zone cadre in Pursat town, that the population movement was due to Vietnamese aggression against Cambodia and the betrayal of the East Zone leader, Sao Phim. The former chairman of Rumlech cooperative (in Bakan Leu District, Sector 2 of the Northwest Zone) who attended this meeting, states that Ta Mok referred to Sao Phim as a traitor, and stated that “Angkar” was going to move the population from the East Zone to the Northwest Zone. Ta Mok added that it was necessary to 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. 77