K-5 Plan (addressed by defense at Khmer Rouge Tribunal)

Objections, Observations,and Notifications Regarding Various Documents to Be Put Before the Trial Chamber of ECCC (Khmer Rouge Tribunal)

33. According to the Modified Indictment, under the rubric devoted to crimes against humanity, the alleged criminal ‘system [implemented in DK] resulted in millions of victims, including 1.7 to 2.2 million deaths, of which some 800,000 were violent’.79 Though rarely discussed openly in this country, it has been publicly reported that upwards of 50,000 individuals may have died in the implementation of the so-called ‘K-5 Plan’, which took place shortly after the DK period but well before any assessments of the regime’s alleged death toll were undertaken. As far as the Defence is aware, none of those forensic inquiries took the potentially numerically-distorting effect of the K-5 episode into account. The Defence has recently obtained certain documents indicating that Hun Sen may bear responsibility for the implementation of the K-5 Plan and resulting deaths; at the very least, he is surely in possession of information related to what was described in 1986 as ‘Cambodia’s new genocide’. Given its extremely sensitive nature, such information has been difficult to verify. And finding fluent Khmer speakers willing to assist in the translation and analysis of relevant documents has proven equally complicated. Yet the Defence is making progress.