The Khmer Rouge National Army: Order of Battle, January 1976

This set of tables from the archives of the Santebal, the Khmer Rouge national-level security forces, reveals the order of battle of the national Khmer Rouge army, the Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea.  The first table reveals that the total number of Khmer Rouge regular forces was 72,248 troops, in nine divisions [kong pul] and four regiments [kong voreachsena thom].  The commanders of each division and regiment are named along with commanders of other units.  (For a summary of the Democratic Kampuchea military chain of command, see Ben Kiernan, Genocide and Democracy in Cambodia, p. 15, Table 2.)  The second table shows the amount of rice estimated to be harvested in 1976 by the soldiers of each of a number of the army’s divisions.  Note that the “Chinese comrades” are estimated to harvest 5000 thang of rice, approximately 125 tons. 

It is important to remember that these forces are only the regular troops [thoap sruoch] under the direct command of the Khmer Rouge national general staff.  Each of the seven Zones of Democratic Kampuchea also had its own general staff.  The Zone military commands, their thirty or more component Regions, and over one hundred districts, commanded additional, regional forces [thoap damban].  There were also militia units [chhlop] in each of the country’s sub-districts and also in each village.

The final tables describe the January 1976 order of battle and internal structure of the 170th Division, which was to be decimated by Santebal purges in the months that followed.  The 170th was the former 1st Eastern Zone Division, commanded by Chan Chakrey (alias Mean) until 1975.  It came under direct Center control in July of that year.  On 9 October 1975, Pol Pot had remarked to a secret meeting of the Standing committee of the ruling Communist Party of Kampuchea that Chakrey’s 170th Division was “the strongest of all” but that Chakrey owed his rank to Vietnam:  “We must pay attention to what he says, to see [whether] he is a traitor who will deprive himself of any future.” With Chakrey’s deputy, Phan, too, “we must be totally silent… . We must watch their activities.”  Pol Pot removed Chakrey from his division command and brought him under close Center supervision as deputy chief of the general staff.  (For sources on the purge of Chakrey, see Ben Kiernan, The Pol Pot Regime, pp. 101, 321-5.)  The January 1976 report to the Santebal on the Division’s order of battle was part of its process of planning a purge.  Chakrey was demoted in April and arrested on May 19th, 1976, his wife on September 19th.  By November, 241 serving and former members of the 170th had been sent to Tuol Sleng prison.

The author of these documents, Ke San alias Sok, who replaced Chakrey as the 170th Division’s political comissar, was himself arrested by the Santebal on March 4th 1978.

TRANSLATION     Rice Consumption Plan, 1976 ——

64,248 + 8,000 = 72,248 x 15 = 1,083,720 thangs.

Clarifications:

1. 10 to 15 thang of each 100 thang of rice just harvested will be lost if we keep it for a long time. So out of 1,083,720 thang of rice [we] will lose: (1083,720 x 15)/100 = 162,588thang

2. Rice consumption (needs) in 1976:  1,083,720 + 162,550 = 1,246,278 thang.

3. Measurement in tons:  1,246,278/40 = 31,157 tons

Amount of rice harvest, 1976 —— 

  
1. Measurement in tons: 81,240/40 = 2,31 tons

2. Consumption : 6.60% 3. This is just an estimate because [we] havent finished harvesting.

 170th Division 

To the staff committee with respect,   

[Id] like to report the weapons and forces and bases, as noted in the table below:

1. Table of weapons trequired [for combat readiness], from sections up to divisions. 2. Weapons that [we] have for combat readiness, shortages, and spares. 3. Table of plans to establish bases and to work. 
  - Total: 6,627 people. - Able to work: 5,556 people. - Cannot work: 1,071 people. 
- Do easy work: study, cham ba lo (dredge ponds), absent, in training = 379 people. - Cannot work: sick, injured, in hospital = 732 people.

Table of weapons [we] have that were distributed as arms

Table of establishing the bases of Division 170 and the work. 
  
 

Total members: 6,627 people Able to work: 5,556 people Cannot work: 1,071 people:

-Do easy work, study, chambalo(dredge ponds), absent, in training: 329 people.

Cannot work, sick, injured, in hospital: 742 people. 
  
  
 

Table of weapons required for combat readiness, from section to Division level.   
  
 

  
[Translator’s note:  The above tables were in the original one large spread across two pages.  We have reformatted them here to make them easier to view.  They are of considerable interest in that they reveal the structure of a particular Division, the 170th.  We’ve expanded abbreviations from the Khmer original as follows:]