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September 3, 2004
[Have an opinion about the issues discussed in this article?
Sound
off in our Discussion Boards.]
By Joseph Giordono and Jennifer Kleckner,
Stars and Stripes Pacific Edition
SEOUL — Heeding a call to probe abuses and crimes possibly hidden
by decades of authoritarian rule, the South Korean military this
week launched a special committee to investigate civilian deaths
in the Korean
War.
While the investigation will first focus on South Korean troops,
officials said Thursday, the committee also likely would dig into
accusations against foreign troops, including U.S. forces.
The investigations result from South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun’s
call for government agencies to open records and release information
on mysterious deaths unresolved from past decades.
“As President Roh commanded, we’re taking it a step further with
this committee and will start to investigate crimes committed by
the military during the war,” said Brig. Gen. Nam Dae-yeon, Ministry
of National Defense spokesman.
“At the moment, we are focusing on the ROK Army. However, investigating
crimes committed by foreign soldiers is still up in the air. I expect
the investigation process for the ROK Army crimes to take around
one month.”
Reports of several “massacres” of civilians during the 1950-53
Korean War have surfaced in recent years.
Four years ago, an Associated Press reporting team won a Pulitzer
Prize for its series on No Gun Ri, where U.S. forces allegedly killed
hundreds of civilians fleeing south during the war’s early days.
The articles alleged U.S. commanders ordered their troops to fire
intentionally on large groups of civilians, fearing North
Korean infiltrators were among their ranks.
A Pentagon investigation of the incident disputed many of the findings,
including that civilians were targeted intentionally, leading to
widespread protests in Seoul.
According to Ministry of National Defense officials, the new inquiries
will focus on 10 incidents in which large numbers of civilians reportedly
were killed.
Separate investigative teams also will look into dozens of recent
suicides by South Korean soldiers. In many cases, family members
have accused military officials of covering up wrongdoing which
led to the soldiers’ deaths.
MND officials said that together, the investigations are meant
to quell public suspicion of the military, which backed authoritarian
South Korean regimes for much of the past fifty years. The investigation
committee, headed by the vice defense minister, will include both
military and civilian investigators, officials said.
Roh’s call for investigations caused controversy in part because
they could entail examining murky periods in South Korea’s history.
His move to order investigations of Koreans accused of collaborating
with or working for the Japanese before the World
War II occupation has caused waves.
Roh made the call for the investigations Aug. 15, the day South
Korea celebrates the end of Japanese occupation.
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