wfn.org | [PCUSAnews] U.S. admission of massacre in Korea

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Note #6337 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

01018

U.S. admission of massacre in Korea
is an "important step," NCC chief says

Council urges U.S., South Korea to work toward "a satisfactory closure"

By Carol Fouke
NCC Office of News and Information

NEW YORK CITY - An official U.S. government acknowledgment on Jan. 11 that
American soldiers killed refugees at No Gun Ri during the Korean War is "an
important step on the still?unfinished journey toward truth, justice and
healing," said Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of
Churches (NCC).
However, Edgar expressed concern that the Pentagon's report did not deal
adequately with the responsibility of commanders, and did not address
demands from survivors and family members for compensation.
"Until justice is done," he said, "there can be no true reconciliation
between our two peoples, and no lasting peace for survivors, victims and
their families - or for those GIs who killed and wounded innocent civilians
at No Gun Ri. The U.S. government must continue to work with the Korean
authorities and the survivors of the No Gun Ri massacre and their families
to bring the matter to a satisfactory closure."
The Army's acknowledgment last Thursday that "an unknown number of Korean
civilians were killed or injured" at the hamlet of No Gun Ri by U.S. troops
in late July 1950 reversed its previous claim that U.S. troops were not
involved.
The (US) National Council of Churches, the nation's leading ecumenical
organization with 36 member denominations comprising 50 million adherents,
and its South Korean counterpart more than two years ago asked the Pentagon
for its response to detailed testimony from Korean survivors and
eyewitnesses to the massacre at No Gun Ri of as many as 400 innocent
civilians, mostly women, children and the elderly.
Responding to an official request from survivors and bereaved family
members, the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) Committee for
Justice and Human Rights recorded survivors' testimonies as part of its own
investigation of the incident, then forwarded the dossier to the NCC with a
request "for your cooperation to resolve this issue."
Victor W.C. Hsu, then the NCC's East Asia and the Pacific Office director,
wrote Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen on Dec. 18, 1998, enclosing the
NCCK?assembled dossier and asking the Pentagon's response to the
allegations.
"According to the NCCK," Mr. Hsu wrote, "the U.S. Army 'refuses to take
responsibility for this massacre because this incident happened during the
war.'"
The investigation was put in the hands of John P. McLaurin III, Deputy
General Secretary (Military Personnel Management and Equal Opportunity
Policy), who on March 22, 1999, wrote Hsu to report: "The Army's Center of
Military History reviewed the enclosures to the packet created by the
National Council of Churches in Korea and also available U.S. Army records
for the Korean War for July 1950 located in the National Archives and
Records Administration. Their review found no information to substantiate
the claim that U.S. Army soldiers perpetrated a massacre of South Korean
civilians at No Gun Ri."
In September 1999, the Associated Press published its own documentation of
the massacre in a series of reports that subsequently was awarded a Pulitzer
Prize. About 20 ex?GIs interviewed by the AP "recalled orders to shoot," the
AP reported.
The news service "also found wartime documents showing that at least three
high?level Army headquarters and an Air Force command ordered troops to
treat as hostile any civilians approaching U.S. positions. At the time, U.S.
forces were in retreat, and thousands of refugees fled for their safety as
the North Korean army advanced south."
The NCC urged the U.S. government to pay attention to the South Koreans'
grievance. In November 1999, the NCC brought U.S. veterans and massacre
survivors together in Cleveland for a ceremony of "recognition and
remembrance" - the first encounter between members of the two groups in 50
years.
In his public response to the Pentagon's report, President Clinton said, "I
deeply regret that Korean civilians lost their lives at No Gun Ri." South
Korean President Kim Dae?jung phoned Clinton to thank him for his statement,
the AP reported.
"Telling the truth takes courage," Edgar said. "We salute the members of the
U.S. military who have stepped forward to right a wrong. And we are grateful
to the survivors and their families and to the National Council of Churches
in Korea for their persistence in demanding that the massacre be
acknowledged and a just resolution be found."

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