SUM Alat alias CHHONG Lat
Pseudonym: TCW-689
Cases: Case 002/01
Category: Witness
Events after 17 April 1975
After Khmer Rouge soldiers seized control of Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975, General Mey Sichan instructed Lon Nol soldiers in Pursat Province to disarm.
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Sum Alat recalled being with his unit in Svay Doun Keo when he heard the surrender announcement on national broadcast.
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Both Lon Nol and Khmer Rouge soldiers in Svay Doun Keo laid down their weapons and celebrated the cease fire during the evening.
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The next morning, however, Khmer Rouge soldiers continued to fire indiscriminately at Lon Nol soldiers while they walked from Doun Keo district to Pursat, holding a white flag.
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On the evening he arrived in Bakan district, Sum Alat attended a meeting with about 500 soldiers, residents, and civil servants.
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During the meeting, residents were told to evacuate the provincial town and relocate to rural areas.
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Provincial town hall meetings in Pursat
After Pursat province was captured by the Khmer Rouge, the provincial government and Lon Nol military continued functioning as usual.
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Approximately one week after 17 April 1975, soldiers, civil servants, and students of Lon Nol’s regime were invited to attend a meeting at Pursat town hall.
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About 500 people attended said meeting.
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Approximately 200 attendees were Lon Nol soldiers.
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This meeting lasted about two to three hours, during which attendees were informed about the Khmer Rouge’s policy of reconciliation and country-building.
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At the meeting, Khmer Rouge soldiers were armed and wearing black.
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Sum Alat attended this meeting in civilian clothes,
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and recalled that none of the Lon Nol soldiers were armed.
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Sector Secretary, Ta Sot, attended the meeting.
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The meeting finished after it was agreed that the attendees would meet again the following day to be received by Angkar at Tuol Po Chrey.
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Sum Alat was tired of fighting and was optimistic about the opportunity of reconciliation.
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Most of the other attendees shared his sentiment and, for that reason, agreed to join the meeting the following day.
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According to Sum Alat, on the following day, hundreds of attendees were transported to Tuol Po Chrey by 13 or 15 trucks, carrying 50 to 60 people each.
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The trucks were so crowded that Sum Alat was asked to wait for the next convoy of trucks.
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He and approximately 50 to 60 people who were unable to board the trucks waited for two hours for a second trip that did not occur, which prompted him to then return home.
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The Trial Chamber relied on Sum Alat’s testimony in addition to other evidence to find that attendance to the two provincial town hall meetings was voluntary,
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and that both civilians and soldiers attended the meetings.
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While the Trial Chamber noted inconsistencies in the evidence provided by Sum Alat and other witnesses on the number of attendees and the presence of civilians at the meeting,
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it considered that divergence was expected given the passage of time since the events in question and did not affect the credibility of their testimonies.
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Although Sum Alat estimated a larger amount of people being taken to Tuol Po Chrey, the Trial Chamber was satisfied that a minimum of 10 trucks, each bearing at least 25 people, left the town hall meeting.
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The Trial Chamber found that Sum Alat did not stay long enough at the town hall to witness the second transfer.
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Despite finding that Sum Alat did not witness multiple transfers, the Trial Chamber concluded that several trips from the town hall to Tuol Po Chrey did indeed take place throughout the day.
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On appeal, Nuon Chea argued that the Trial Chamber erred in concluding that several trips to Tuol Po Chrey took place given that Sum Alat, the only witness who was present in the town hall meeting, did not himself witness multiple journeys.
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However, the Supreme Court Chamber was not convinced that the Trial Chamber’s finding was unreasonable.
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Events at Tuol Po Chrey
Three days after the second meeting, Sum Alat spoke with two soldiers named That and Dor, who managed to escape the killing site.
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He recalled that they told him that they were loaded off the trucks approximately 700 metres to one kilometre away from Tuol Po Chrey, where they were then tied up and led to another group to be executed.
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Two weeks after That and Dor covertly shared this information with Sum Alat, they were arrested and killed.
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Sum Alat added that, up until the date of his testimony, he did not hear anything from his friends who boarded the trucks at Tuol Po Chrey.
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Although Sum Alat was not actually present at Tuol Po Chrey,
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the Trial Chamber found that his testimony regarding the subject matter of the meetings, as well as the promises made to attendees which lead to their subsequent transfers to Tuol Po Chrey, was detailed, reliable, and corroborated by the testimony of other witnesses.
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Considering Sum Alat’s and other witnesses’ testimonies, the Trial Chamber inferred that Lon Nol officials who were transported to Tuol Po Chrey were in fact executed, and subsequently found that the killings of said officials constituted the crimes of murder, extermination, and persecution on political grounds as crimes against humanity.
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On appeal, Nuon Chea challenged the Trial Chamber’s decision to convict him and Khieu Samphan for the killings in Tuol Po Chrey since none of the witnesses saw the killings first-hand.
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The Supreme Court Chamber rejected this ground of appeal, finding that the Trial Chamber relied on satisfactory circumstantial and hearsay evidence to infer that the executions occurred.
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