• 90.               Based on reports from lower-ranking officials to their superiors, directives from superiors to subordinates, and requests for assistance of information that were discovered, among other evidence,²⁵⁴ it appears that the main inter-personal or inter-office communication was by letter, telegram and messenger. Official communication also took place in meetings and at gatherings at each administrative level as well as at larger rallies in Phnom Penh.²⁵⁵ Invitations to such official meetings were generally distributed by messenger or telegram. Furthermore, the CPK disseminated a number of directives and political education material throughout the country. Such material was sent from the centre to lower administrative ranks.

Lower ranks would, in turn, disseminate the material among the population in the zones and sectors.²⁵⁶

• 91.               Letters were sent from senior CPK leaders such as POL Pot, Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary.²⁵⁷ Letters were reportedly delivered through messengers to zone and sector secretaries.²⁵⁸ One of the telegrams sent from the Central Zone (fomer North Zone) indicates that letters were sometimes carried in person by higher officials such as Zone Secretary Ke Pork himself.²⁵⁹

• 92.               Messengers were primarily used to deliver reports and telegrams from the radio telegraphic unit to ministries²⁶⁰ or for communicating information about arrests.²⁶¹ Within the different zones, “Messengers carried correspondence by hand on bicycles and motorcycles. Messengers were very busy and spent only a short time in each location before returning to their home base. Messengers were not tied to one single link but worked all the different links serviced by their station”.²⁶² One witness states that messengers from the Centre would use a speed boat to get to Kratie in Autonomous Sector 505.²⁶³

• 93.               After the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975, the central telegram unit that had operated in the “liberated areas” was moved to Phnom Penh.²⁶⁴ About 40 children were recruited from the provinces and were taught the basic working techniques of telegram communication (coding, typing, etc.) as well as sometimes French and English.²⁶⁵ On 9 October 1975 the Standing Committee decided on the functioning of the telegram unit.²⁶⁶

 

• 94.               The telegram unit, which was divided into two sections (one responsible for transmitting and receiving the telegram, and the other for the encoding and decoding)²⁶⁷ was code named K-18 and was located in Phnom Penh at the old United States Embassy (now the Fishery Administration).²⁶⁸ Office K-18 was composed of an internal communications section with Oeun in charge and an external communications section with Rim in charge.²⁶⁹. Approximately 20 to 30 persons worked in each of the two sections. ²⁷⁰ Subsequent chairmen of the telegram unit were Yos²⁷¹ (also mentioned as deputy chief²‘²) and ,³

• 95.               Within the zones, a telegram unit consisted of a telegram coder, a transmitter or operator and a typist or secretary.

• 96.               Outgoing messages from the Centre were first sent to the telegram coding unit which was located at the Party Centre office K-1 to be encoded into number codes.²⁷⁵ The encoded message was then forwarded to the operation group at K-18 that transmitted the messages to the recipients in coded form, where they decoded it into plain text.²⁷⁶ Incoming telegrams from the zones arrived at K-18 and were written down by the typist group. The encoded message was then sent to K-1 for decoding and transmitted to the receiving Party cadre.²⁷⁷ Incoming telegrams were forwarded to other cadre upon the decision of Pol Pot and his staff, who received copies of all messages.²⁷⁸ Where the word “document” was attributed to a message, this implied that it was to be kept in the archive of the respective telegram translator.²⁷⁹ Copies of the coded and the text versions of the telegram had to be kept for six months before they were burnt.²⁸⁰

• 97.               The following recipient code names were frequently used in telegrams: “Grand Uncle” for Pol Pot;²⁸¹ “Grand Uncle Nuon” for;²⁸² “Grand Uncle Vann” for Ieng Sary;²⁸³ “Grand Uncle Vorn” for Vorn Vet;²⁸⁴ “Uncle Hem” for Khieu Samphan;²⁸⁵ “Respected Brother” for Pol Pot;²⁸⁶ “K-3” for Office of Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea;²⁸⁷ and “K-1” for Office of Pol Pot.²⁸⁸

• 98.               The number “870” was identified by several witnesses as the code number of the Centre.²⁸⁹ Charged person Khieu Samphan states in this regard: “Pol Pot signed documents by writing 870”.²⁹⁰ The word “M-870” was identified by witnesses as the code number for the Central Committee Office or for Nuon Chea and Pol Pot interchangeably. The word Committee 870 referred to the Central Committee.²⁹³ According to Charged person Duch: “Any fax or letter with the name “Pol” “870” or “Office 870” referred to Pol Pot“.²⁹⁴