CLOSING ORDER
of Co-Investigating Judges You Bunleng and Marcel Lemonde, 15 September 2010
III. ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURES (NATIONAL)
- 58. Below the level of the Centre, Democratic Kampuchea was sub-divided into a series of hierarchical administrative entities, all reporting up a vertical chain-of-command, culminating at the Centre. Immediately below the Centre were a number of large “zones”. They were subdivided into “sectors” with each of these containing a number of “districts” within which were a series of “subdistricts” and “cooperatives”.184 At each level, the zone, sector, district and subdistrict tiers of this national structure were each governed by a committee, each of which was headed by a secretary.185
- 59. Immediately after April 1975 there were six zones; North Zone, Northwest Zone, Northeast Zone, Southwest Zone, West Zone and East Zone.186 In 1977, the North Zone was renamed the Central Zone187 and a new North Zone was created.
- 60. In addition to the zones which reported directly to the Centre, the CPK created a number of “autonomous sectors” which bypassed the zone level to report directly to the Centre. These were Autonomous Sector 103 (Preah Vihear), Autonomous Sector 105 (Mondulkiri), Autonomous Sector 106 (Siem Reap), Autonomous Sector 505 (Kratie) and the Kampong Som Autonomous City (Cambodia’s principal Seaport).188 In addition, Phnom Penh itself was categorized as a distinct territory not within the formal national administrative structures, which reported directly to the Centre.189 Autonomous Sector 106 (Siem Reap) was merged with Autonomous Sector 103 (Preah Vihear) to create the New North Zone in 1977.190