Treatment of the Vietnamese

[Disclaimer: The content in Closing Orders are allegations, which need to be proven through adversarial hearings. As such, the allegations below can not be treated as facts unless they have been established through a final judgment.]

From the Case 002 Closing Order:

D. TREATMENT OF TARGETED GROUPS

205. One of the five policies was to implement and defend the CPK socialist revolution through the targeting of specific groups by whatever means necessary. This measure adversely affected many groups of people within Cambodia at that time, directly or indirectly. The Co-Investigating Judges have been specifically seized of acts of the CPK targeting the Cham, Vietnamese and Buddhist groups, and the targeting of former officials of the Khmer Republic (including both civil servants and former military personnel and their families), occurring throughout Cambodia from the early stages of CPK control over certain parts of the territory before 1975 and continuing until at least 6 January 1979. 

206. The Co-Investigating Judges are seized of treatment of the Cham in the Central, East and Northwest Zones; of the Vietnamese in Prey Veng and Svay Rieng Provinces in the East Zone and during incursions into Vietnam; of Buddhists throughout Democratic Kampuchea; and of former officials of the Khmer Republic during the movement of the population from Phnom Penh. This last incident constitutes only one of several occurrences of a pattern of targeting former officials of the Khmer Republic.
 
207. An objective of this policy was to establish an atheistic and homogenous society without class divisions, abolishing all ethnic, national, religious, racial, class and cultural differences. This is evidenced through Party documents relating to class. In 1974, an article written by Pol Pot in Revolutionary Flag set forth the notion that a “special class” existed in Cambodian society, comprised of “soldiers, police and Buddhist monks”. The notebooks of cadre that appear to refer to this article state that all national minorities were also considered to be part of this “separate special class type”. Other classes such as the feudalists, capitalists and bourgeois were described as opponents of the revolution. In September 1975, the implementation of this objective evolved when the CPK proclaimed these classes and the special separate class types abolished, declaring that the only classes that existed were workers and peasants, and that all of the other classes had been melded into these two groups. At this time, or shortly thereafter, Phnom Penh radio made its last references to Buddhist monks, Cham and other “national minorities”. Although senior Party authorities continued to talk about a Cambodian population incorporating non-Khmer nationalities into 1976, by August 1977, the national minorities’ de facto abolition and assimilation was officially stated to have advanced to the point where the country was described as “99 per cent” Khmer. Another objective of this policy was to eliminate enemies and to destroy certain groups, as such, in whole or in part. The targeting of specific groups was a key means by which the CPK did “whatever can be done that is a gain for the revolution”.

Dates and Participation

[…]
213. With respect to the Vietnamese, this policy came into existence before 1975 and continued to escalate throughout the CPK regime until at least 6 January 1979. From 1973, the CPK expelled Vietnamese people from Cambodian territory and sent them back to Vietnam, a policy that had been first implemented by the Lon Nol government since 1970. Expulsions continued in 1975 and 1976. The April 1976 issue of Revolutionary Flag addresses the expulsion of Vietnamese people from Cambodian territory and states that “the great typhoon of our democratic revolution swept hundreds of thousands of these foreigners clean and expelled them from our country, got them permanently out of our territory”.

214. From April 1977, the CPK intended to further this policy by destroying in whole or in part the Vietnamese group as such. This is evidenced by the April 1977 issue of the Revolutionary Flag magazine, which contains a direct call to kill all members of the Vietnamese community remaining in Cambodia. It called for the masses to “seek out” and “smash” them  and stated, “as for their old roots, some of whom still remain after we have smashed them to bits, it is imperative to whip-up the people to sweep more of them clean and make things permanently clean. Evidence of implementation of the policy is contained in communications from the zone level to the Centre. Former cadres also confirm the policy: wherever there were Vietnamese, “everyone had to be careful and to find them and to “sweep them up”. Indeed, from 1977 onwards, mass targeted killings of Vietnamese civilians occurred throughout Prey Veng and Svay Rieng in the East Zone. There is also evidence that Vietnamese civilians were targeted and killed throughout Cambodia as set out in the section of the Closing Order regarding Factual Findings of Crimes, in particular for the Northeast Zone and the North Zone.

215. The CPK based their policy to destroy the Vietnamese group on the theory of matrilineal descent. If a Vietnamese man was married to a Cambodian woman, only the man would be killed and the woman and any children would be spared. However, if a Vietnamese woman was married to a Cambodian man, the woman and any children of the marriage would be killed, while the man would be spared. This practice seems to have been applied throughout Prey Veng and Svay Rieng as well as in other parts of the country.
[..]

Treatment of Vietnamese
Introduction

791. The Vietnamese may be considered to be an ethnic group as they share a common language and culture and because they identify and distinguish themselves as Vietnamese and are identified and distinguished by others as such. The CPK also referred to the Vietnamese being a national group in a number of public statements. Furthermore, CPK cadre also considered Vietnamese to be a racial group based on biological and particularly matrilineal descent, treating them as a group based on the hereditary physical traits identified with the geographical region of Vietnam.
Demographic Evidence

792. The Demographic Expert Report, dated 30 September 2009, concluded that there were approximately 400,000 Vietnamese in Cambodia in 1970. Almost half of them were either expelled to Vietnam or killed by the Lon Nol regime that same year and another 150-200,000 left Cambodia after the CPK took power in April 1975. The report states that around 20,000 Vietnamese were still living in Cambodia in April 1975 and “all 20,000 of them died from the hands of the Khmer Rouge during the years from April 1975 to January 1979”.

793. There appears to have been a very small number of Vietnamese people who remained in Cambodia throughout the CPK regime and were not killed. Two witnesses give evidence that they knew of a Vietnamese person who avoided being killed by physically hiding or by disguising him or herself as Khmer. Another three witnesses state that they were aware of one or two Vietnamese people who were not killed but did not know why they had not been killed. One witness who had a part-Vietnamese mother states that although the majority of her family was killed, including her mother, she was kept alive because “there were not many Vietnamese in my village and ... my husband knew how to sew, particularly the beret caps and uniforms of the Khmer Rouge”.


Movement of Vietnamese Civilians From Cambodia To Vietnam
794. Initially the CPK focused on expelling all Vietnamese people from Cambodian territory and sending them to Vietnam. This policy commenced as early as 1973 and was further applied in 1975 and 1976. It was applied in Prey Veng and Svay Rieng and throughout Cambodia. Vietnamese people were transported by foot, train and boat to Vietnam. It appears that only Vietnamese people were permitted to return to Vietnam and there may have been language tests to establish their supposed Vietnamese citizenship. Some witnesses state that they were made to go to Vietnam and some state that Vietnamese people could choose to accept an invitation to go to Vietnam. Some witnesses suspected that it was a trap and that people were actually being taken to be killed. The Cambodian spouses and families of Vietnamese people were not permitted to go to Vietnam, so it appears that many Vietnamese people who had Cambodian spouses or one Cambodian parent chose to remain in Cambodia.

795. One witness states that the CPK authorities gathered the Vietnamese to transport them by boats to their country and that those who did not leave were searched for and taken away for execution”. Another witness corroborates this, describing what happened as follows: “As for the ethnic Vietnamese, even if they had struggled and worked in the units or were ordinary people, they were sent back to Vietnam. Later on, any ethnic Vietnamese who had refused to go or who had disguised themselves as ethnic Khmer were arrested, taken away, and killed”.
 
796. The April 1976 Revolutionary Flag Magazine appears to address the expulsion of Vietnamese. It refers to the “one type of foreigner that was very strongly poisonous and dangerous to our people. These people have what is called a poisonous composition since they came to wolf us down, came to nibble at us, came to swallow us, came to confiscate and take away everything, and came to endanger our nation and our people, and they have caused us to lose much territory in the past”. The magazine goes on to state “[h]owever, our revolution, in particular on 17 April 1975, sorted this issue out cleanly and sorted it out entirely. We assume that we sorted it out permanently. For thousands of years we were unable to resolve this issue and did not resolve it. The exploiting classes did not only not sort this out, they sold whole sections of land to these foreigners. Now, we have sorted out this issue. Our revolutionary workers and our revolutionary peasants and our people, our Revolutionary Army, sorted this issue out completely and permanently. The dimensions of this victory are huge, very profound, very magnificent … That is, the great typhoon of the national movement and the great typhoon of our democratic revolution swept hundreds of thousands of these foreigners clean and expelled them from our country, got them permanently out of our territory”. 
Killings of Vietnamese Civilians in Prey Veng and Svay Rieng

797. Numerous witnesses give evidence that waves of killings of Vietnamese civilians occurred in Prey Veng Province and in Svay Rieng Province in 1977, 1978 and 1979. Using the CPK’s system of identifying administrative boundaries, Prey Veng and Svay Rieng Provinces encompassed part or all of the East Zone Sectors 20, 22, 23 and 24.

798. CPK cadre approached the arrest and killing of these Vietnamese people in a methodical way, going from house to house or calling meetings to register ethnic Vietnamese people. Pre-prepared lists of Vietnamese were used when conducting arrests, which one witness states was part of orders from the “upper level”.

799. Sometimes Vietnamese people would be told that they were being taken away for study, to a meeting, or to cut rattan vine, would be put into horse carts and taken away. Often the father of the family would be taken away first and then, within a short period of time, the mother and children also taken away. One witness, whose Vietnamese mother was arrested, states that the only reason she survived is because the villagers told the CPK cadre that she had “Khmer blood”. Many of the witnesses gave evidence that all the Vietnamese in their village were taken away, or that they knew of Vietnamese people who had disappeared forever, but did not know where they were being taken. Some witnesses give evidence that the killings took place in Veal Tauch, Chamkar Kuoy Village, Prey Veng District.

800. Witnesses identify village, subdistrict and district cadre as being involved in the arrest of the Vietnamese in Prey Veng. Some witnesses give evidence that the arrests were upon orders of the Sector 20 Committee or the upper echelon and identify that the killings occurred both before and after the purge of the East Zone which was implemented mainly by cadre from the Southwest Zone.

801. A similar pattern of arrests and killings of Vietnamese people occurred in Svay Rieng Province. In 1417 and 1978, witnesses saw Vietnamese people in Svay Rieng being arrested and taken away by subdistrict and district CPK cadre. None of the witnesses knew where they were being taken to but give evidence that they knew they were taken to be killed. One witness, who gives evidence that the “Vietnamese line” was arrested, states that “I do not know where they took them: they took them away and they disappeared. They killed them; they did not take them anywhere”.


Killings of Vietnamese Civilians outside of Prey Veng and Svay Rieng
802. The killing of Vietnamese civilians was not limited to Prey Veng and Svay Rieng Provinces, thus demonstrating that it was organised as a national policy. A mass execution of Vietnamese people occurred in mid-to-late 1978 at Wat Khsach, in Yeang Village, Russei-Lok Subdistrict, Siem Reap Province. Vietnamese people were arrested from Svay Leu District and Chikreng District (Siem Reap Province, North Zone) and taken to Wat Khsach. The CPK took measures to ensure that only Vietnamese people were targeted. Arrests were conducted with the use of a statistical list of Vietnamese people. One witness states that he heard a CPK cadre ask the people who had been arrested “[a]re all of you Vietnamese?” Another witness heard the CPK cadre asking “[a]re you Yuon or Chinese?” and stated that those who replied they were Vietnamese were killed and those who were Chinese were released. This is corroborated by a further witness who met a woman who had been released from Wat Khsach because she claimed to be Chinese. The Vietnamese people were not interrogated or detained for long in Wat Khsach. They were killed within 24 hours of being arrested, by bamboo clubs, and the bodies were put in grave pits and a well. Some witnesses saw the killings and another heard the sounds of them striking the people and heard screaming. One witness stated that approximately 100 Vietnamese people were killed within the three hours he watched and estimated that around 600-700 were killed in total. Another witness stated that approximately 25 people were killed in the one hour he watched and estimated that approximately 100 people were killed over two or three successive occasions. Vietnamese men, women and children were killed.

803. Other witness statements describe that Vietnamese civilians were targeted and killed throughout Cambodia, including in the following places: Battambang and Pursat in the Northwest Zone; Mondulkiri in Autonomous Sector 105 in the North East Zone; Kampot, Takeo in the Southwest Zone; Kratie in Autonomous Sector 505; Koh Kong in the West Zone; and Kroch Chhmar and Khsach Kandal in the East Zone.

804. There is also evidence that Vietnamese people were detained and killed at a number of security centres under investigation by the Co-Investigating Judges, including: S-21 in Phnom Penh; Kraing Ta Chan Security Office in the Southwest Zone; Prey Damrei Srot Security Centre and Koh Kyang Security Centre in the West Zone; Kok Kduoch Security Centre (Kok Kduoch) in Autonomous Sector 505; and Au Kanseng Security Centre in the Northeast Zone. In June 1977, 209 Vietnamese troops of Jarai nationality were captured and later executed en masse at the Au Kanseng Security Centre. The arrest of these people had been reported by the Secretary of the Northeast Zone to “Respected Brother” and copied to Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary.

Treatment of Cambodian People with Vietnamese Spouses and Children with one Vietnamese Parent
805. Pursuant to the early CPK policy, those Vietnamese with Cambodian spouses were not permitted to return to Vietnam with their spouses. This resulted in a situation where many of the remaining Vietnamese in Cambodia in 1977 were those who had married Cambodians and had children.

806. A large number of witnesses gave evidence that there was a particular practice of how to treat Cambodian people in such a situation, which was applied on many occasions not only throughout Prey Veng and Svay Rieng but also in Kampong Cham (Kang Meas District in Central (Old North) Zone Sector 41)  and Siem Reap province.

807. The practice was as follows: if a Vietnamese man was married to a Cambodian woman, only the man would be killed and the woman and any children would be spared. But, if a. Vietnamese woman was married to a Cambodian man, the woman and children of the marriage would be killed, while the man would be spared.

808. The reasoning behind this policy is referenced by a number of witnesses. One witness states that “if the mother was Vietnamese, they would take the mother and all the children and kill them because the children suck the milk of the mother”. Other witnesses states that they were told that the children of Vietnamese mothers were killed because “the umbilical or the blood comes from the mother and not from the father” or because the policy consisted of “killing the Vietnamese genes or the Vietnamese blood line” and that “the Vietnamese race should neither exist anymore, nor should it be allowed to reproduce”.

809. The children of Cambodian mothers and Vietnamese fathers were not always spared. On some occasions, it appears these children were also killed. On some occasions, the Cambodian spouse of a Vietnamese person was also arrested or killed.

810. A telegram from Ruos Nhim dated 17 May 1978 requests advice from “Angkar 870”, about what to do with “[no-good] elements like soldiers, Vietnamese people – a Khmer husband with a Vietnamese wife or a Vietnamese husband with a Khmer wife – and half-bred Cambodian-Vietnamese people”. Nhim notes that there has been no opposition from these people “as yet” but if anyone “acts something, let him/her be swept off. As for the others, it is requested that they be put aside in one place. With this matter, I think it is not difficult to collect [them], though we have to control them continually. If they come us with phenomena [aspects] we can master [control] them immediately”. Although Nhim suggests a course of action to collect, control and if necessary kill these people, he also states that “the meeting would like to pose this question to Angkar 870. It is up to Angkar to decide. Please let us know if there is any decision made by Angkar”.

811. During an internview, Duch commented on this document and states “there is nothing surprising in this document, Ruos Nhim wrote to Pol Pot ("Angkar 870") in order to explain that regarding former soldiers, Cambodians married to Vietnamese and mixed blood children, the situation was under control and that these people were not likely to damage Angkar in any way. It should be understand that the regime was particularly attentive to this population category, in which they had no trust. This was more for political than "racial" reasons. In fact, there was agreement between the higher and lower echelons that these people should be unable to take action. I don't know if Pol Pot answered Ruos Nhim, but it was not really necessary”. Duch also states that although he did not believe there was a clearly established policy about Vietnamese civilians living in Cambodia, all those who remained in Cambodia after 17 April 1975 were “eliminated”. He further states, “I remember seeing S-21 lists carrying the names of Vietnamese who were still living in Cambodia. Civilians and the military were treated in the same way: they were interrogated and sent to execution”. Finally, Duch further states that he was sometimes informed by Nuon Chea of the arrival of Vietnamese civilians and soldiers at S-21.

812. Similarly, a letter from Ang Ta Saom Subdistrict Chief to Tram Kak District Party dated 26 April 1977 reports on the existence of married Cambodian and Vietnamese couples who had requested to go to Vietnam and asks what “Angkar” would like to do with them. The letter states that they have all been registered, and that if both the husband and wife were had been Vietnamese they would have just been sent to “Angkar”. Another report from the chief of Khal Pou Village requests advice from “Angkar” about what to do with a “half-breed Vietnamese” who had allegedly complained and claimed to be too sick to work.

813. Witnesses also observed that particular treatment of the spouses of Vietnamese people and people with one Vietnamese parent appeared to the result of a decision that was taken by the upper echelon. Several witnesses were informed of the practice by CPK cadre, such as the “village chief” and whilst attending a “self-criticism meeting”. One witness explains that “I knew there were orders from the top downward because I noticed that there were meetings in the morning and in the afternoons the arrests occurred”. Another witness states that “I know that the subdistrict militia … made the arrests following orders from the upper echelon”.

Intention to Destroy the Vietnamese as a Group
814. In the April 1977 issue of the Revolutionary Flag Magazine, the CPK called for the masses to “seek out … assess … analyze … track … pressure … capture …smash the enemy”. It states, “[o]ne very important issue that has to be concentrated on is clearly unmasking again and again the CIA and their agents, the KGB and their agents, the territory-swallowing Yuon and the running dogs throughout the whole Party, throughout the whole army and throughout the people and attacking and breaking the enemy politically and preventing them forever from sneaking into our Party, our army and our people. As for their old roots, some of whom still remain after we have smashed them to bits, it is imperative to whip-up the people to sweep more of them clean and make things permanently clean. This can be considered to constitute a direct call to kill all members of the Vietnamese community remaining in Cambodia.

815. The existence of such a policy is corroborated by notebooks of S-21 cadres, which contain evidence that cadre knew they were required to find and kill all Vietnamese people throughout Cambodia. One notebook states, “[f]ind the Yuon: We find them scattered everywhere. We know there are hidden Yuon in the East, in the Northwest, in Phnom Penh which we have not found. But they do in fact exist”. Another states “[h]ave we found the Yuon or not? Maximum victory = finding the Yuon. Minimum victory = Finding additional traitor connections who are Yuon agents”. The same passage goes on to further note that those Vietnamese are hidden throughout Cambodia.

816. Evidence of implementation of the policy is contained in communications from the zones to the Centre. A report dated 4 August 1978 from West Zone Office 401 reports to “Angkar” of “smashing 100 Vietnamese nationals, small and big, young and old”. This report adds that “our measures against the above enemy elements” consisted of “continuing to follow up with research to find all kinds of enemy links who are undercover burrowing from within and to sweep more of them cleanly away, to absolutely cleanse them from the grassroots and various units, offices and ministries”. According to a military report from 1 April 1978, [REDACTED], [REDACTED] of Centre Division 164, reported in a secret telephone message to Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary that 120 Vietnamese had been captured and shot in the three days between 27 and 30 March 1978.

817. Former cadre also corroborate that the policy was that wherever there were Vietnamese, “everyone had to be careful and to find them and to “sweep them up”.

818. In 2006, Norodom Sihanouk published a handwritten letter in which he gave details of a meeting with Pol Pot in the later stages of the CPK regime. Although this letter does not have the weight as a declaration made as a Written Record of Interview within a judicial investigation, it is considered to be of sufficient weight to be included in the matrix of facts within the Closing Order. This letter states that Pol Pot told Norodom Sihanouk the following: “Our Kampuchea will not be at peace as long as we Kampucheans have not overcome the evil Yuon race. I started by sending our army to Kampuchea Krom (Cochin-China) with the mission to kill as many men, women and children as possible of the evil race. However, it was not possible to kill them all in their territory. In Annam and Tonkin, tens of millions of them are still alive and kicking. So I have decided to change strategy and tactics. Entirely. It is to lure them to our country, give them the impression that they have won military victory. And once they are inside Democratic Kampuchea, we the men and women of Kampuchea will hack them to pieces. We will chop them up. Back home in Vietnam, when they (the Yuon), realize that their soldiers are not returning, they will send us more divisions. We the people of Kampuchea will continue to chop them up. And, in the final phase, we will enter their territory, Annam and Tonkin, after liberating our Kampuchea Krom, and kill their women and children (boys, girls and infants). That way, the evil Yuon race will be wiped off the face of the earth”.

Anti-Vietnamese War and Purge Propaganda
819. Anti-Vietnamese propaganda aimed at the Vietnamese armed forces pursuant to the armed conflict with Vietnam and allegations that the Vietnamese had Khmer agents hidden among the Cambodian people alongside agents of the American CIA and Soviet KGB, while not specifically and expressly targeting remnants of the Vietnamese community in Cambodia, accompanied and greatly encouraged killing those Vietnamese civilians. So did killings of Vietnamese civilians in Vietnam or captured off the coast of Cambodia.

820. From 1977, the CPK escalated its use of propaganda against the Vietnamese inciting Cambodian hatred of the Vietnamese. The CPK disseminated propaganda that the Vietnamese were expansionist, aggressive, evil, savage, land-grabbing, territory-swallowing annexationists who intended to take over Cambodia “eradicating the race and the territory” of Cambodia. The CPK incited a “raging, painful hatred” of the Vietnamese and encouraged cadre to continuously incite this hatred amongst the population. Forced “confessions” of captured Vietnamese soldiers were played on the radio which contained incendiary statements to the effect that Vietnam was planning to swallow Cambodia and destroy the Cambodian people. Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Nuon Chea all participated in the dissemination of such propaganda about the Vietnamese.

821. In the December 1977-January 1978 issue of the Revolutionary Flag Magazine, the CPK publically congratulated the country for the internal purges during 1977 of “Vietnamese agents” hidden in the revoluationary ranks. It states, “[w]e seized great and systematic victories in 1977 by being able systematically to purge and sweep enemies cleanly away and basically to dig out their main roots … Arriving at the present, Yuon and Soviet hidden forces boring from within basically no longer exist”. The magazine called for further killings, stating “[t]urning to organising, our important virtue this year is that we have purged and clean out bad elements and hidden enemy elements boring from within, making our Party maximally clean … In the days to come, however, we must pay attention to continuing to conduct further purges … It is necessary to continue to conduct further purges because enemy elements are not yet thoroughly gone”.

822. The July 1978 edition of the Revolutionary Flag Magazine contains further calls for the killings of Vietnamese people. It states “the Yuon enemy … have been our national enemy from the beginning up through the present, and will be our enemy in the protracted future as well …The national duty of all of us is to struggle to fight to eliminate our aggressive, expansionist, territory-swallowing and genocidal Yuon enemy. Just like the Kampucheans of our current generation, absolutely no Kampucheans of any subsequent generation will lay down arms and stop fighting the aggressive and expansionist/territory-swallowing and genocidal Yuon enemy of the Kampuchean race”. The magazine goes on to congratulate the cooperatives for their role in the killings, stating “[e]ven more particularly, in the great mass movement to attack and smash the aggressive, expansionist, territory-swallowing, genocidal Yuon enemy and in the great mass movement to sweep cleanly away the concealed enemies boring from within who are CIA agents, Yuon running dog agents and KGB agents, cooperatives throughout the country have played an important leading role in carrying out activities fulfilling their missions, bringing about a strategic victory for the nation, the people, the Party and the revolution”. These instructions were coupled with a description of past purges of alleged traitors within the Party ranks and the people.

823. On 15 May 1978, the CPK broadcast a policy over the Phnom Penh home radio service stating that because Cambodia was a smaller nation than Vietnam, “in terms of numbers, one of us must kill 30 Vietnamese”. The broadcast states: “Using these figures, one Cambodian soldier is equal to 30 Vietnamese soldiers. Then how many Vietnamese are equal to 10 Cambodian soldiers? The answer must be 300. And 100 Cambodians are equal to 3,000 Vietnamese. And 1,000,000 Cambodians are equal to 30,000,000 Vietnamese. We should have 2,000,000 troops for 60,000,000 Vietnamese. However 2,000,000 troops would be more than enough to fight the Vietnamese, because Vietnam has only 50,000,000 inhabitants. We don't have to engage 8,000,000 people. We need only 2,000,000 troops to crush the 50,000,000 Vietnamese, and we would still have 6,000,000 people left”. 

824. The broadcast goes on to state, “[t]his matter does not concern the armed forces alone. The entire Party, army and people must be made fully aware of these lines, views and stand”. Indeed, the policy was broadcast over the radio to the Cambodian people and was further communicated to CPK cadre. In the notebook of Mam Nai alias Chan, a senior S-21 interrogator who took notes during lessons given by Duch, he notes that the “principle designated by the Party” is generally one against 30 but went up to one against 90 in Svay
Rieng. He states that this policy must be implemented by “[s]weep[ing] clean all the enemies, accurately”. The notebooks of Pon and Tuy, two other S-21 interrogators also refers to the “party principles” of one against 30 and one against 90 in Svay Rieng.

825. Other CPK radio broadcasts demanded “high revolutionary vigilance” to “protect the Party and defend the revolutionary administration of the worker-peasant class by eliminating both the enemy remnants planted with and the enemy aggressors coming from without” with specific attention given to the need for “completely eliminating from all our cooperatives and Cambodian territory both the enemy remnants planted within and the enemy aggressors from without, as well as all their activities”  and for government offices and departments to do the same. The army vowed “to fight and exterminate the annexationist enemy and other enemies of all stripes so that they will be completely wiped out from our Cambodian territory”. The Ministry of Information and Propaganda stated “should Vietnam refuse to withdraw its forces from the sacred territory of Cambodia, there is only one solution left for the Cambodian Revolutionary Army and people: that is to crush and exterminate to the last man the aggressor Vietnamese enemy who has come to swallow up Vietnamese territory”. 

826. Other instances of killing, “smashing” and attacking Vietnamese civilians and destruction of Vietnamese property were communicated to Office 870, Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary.

827. Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Office 870 were also kept informed by detailed reporting from lower-level cadre on mass killings ofVietnamese civilians in Vietnam. On 14 August 1977, a telegram sent to Mo-81 and copied to Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary reports that “the Kampuchean army has committed mass killings of 1,000 ordinary Vietnamese people at Ha Tien in Kien Giang province”.

828. A CPK Directive from Office 870, dated 1 January 1979 contains instructions on fighting “the aggressive and expansionist land-grabbing Yuon enemy”. The Directive was addressed to “the entire Kampuchean people, the entire Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea, and all the combatants male and female, all the cadres in every office and ministry”. The directive orders the people to “raise the spirit of revolutionary vigilance to always be high to track down and search out Yuon enemy agents and not allow them to hide anywhere at all, to eliminate them and gain timely mastery”.

829. Two days later, Office 870 gave further instructions about how to effectively attack the “aggressor Yuon”, both on the battlefield and within the party. These instructions ordered that “the Zone, Sector, and District Command Committees at all levels and the military cadres and the bases concentrate on studying over and over the line of attack laid out above so that it will be its most effective, and [propose they] fire up our cadres and combatants to defend the Party and the Revolution of Democratic Kampuchea, defend our people, our cooperatives, and all of our rice, farms, crops and produce”. It goes on to order that every level of the Party and military units, ministries, and offices must: “[t]ake careful and firm measures to eradicate espionage, pacifist agents, and the various types of psychological warfare used by the enemy, regardless of form. Be most vigilant on the individual battlefields and near the battlefields among the military, the people, the male and female combatants, the ministries and offices, and the cadres”.

830. Committee 870 gave orders on how to attack the invading Vietnamese troops. A directive dated 3 January 1979 demonstrates the intention of the members of Committee 870 to “push away enemy, destroy enemy, and surely Yuon will cry like monkey and scream all over the forests before they are completely abolished [destroyed] from our sacred land”. The directive also contains orders on how it was to be disseminated through the party: “[t]his advice must be disseminated and studied by party [cadres] at zone, regions, and districts, cooperatives, by battle fields commanders, division commanders, regiment commanders, battalion commanders, company commanders, platoon commanders, unit commanders, and soldiers, commanders at each target, many times until it is fully understood”.

831. The killings may also have been linked to a purge of the East Zone of alleged traitors, whom Nuon Chea identified as “embedded enemies boring holes in side, enemies that were the arms and legs of the Yuon”, but also extended to Vietnamese outside the East Zone.