wfn.org | Ecumenical Council Press "No Gun Ri"

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National Council of the Churches of Christ in the 
USA
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109NCC9/29/99                                                                   
  
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NCC PRESSES U.S. TO ADDRESS GRIEVANCE OF NO GUN RI 
MASSACRE
NCC & South Korean Counterpart Assembled Dossier, 
Approached Pentagon in 1998

    September 29, 1999, NEW YORK CITY - The U.S. 
government must give speedy, aggressive attention 
to the grievance of South Koreans against U.S. 
military personnel in the massacre of some 400 
innocent Korean civilians at No Gun Ri 
(alternative spelling: Nokeun-ri) in July 1950, 
newly documented by the Associated Press, the 
(U.S.) National Council of Churches (NCC) declared 
today.

    The NCC, together with its South Korean 
counterpart, the National Council of Churches in 
Korea, last December had asked the Pentagon's 
response to detailed testimony from Korean 
survivors and eyewitnesses to the massacre of 
mostly women, children and the elderly.  In March, 
the U.S. Army replied that it had "found no 
information to substantiate the claim that U.S. 
Army soldiers perpetrated a massacre of South 
Korean civilians at Nokuen-ri."

    Praising the Associated Press for bringing new 
evidence of the massacre to light in its report, 
released today, the NCC's General Secretary, the 
Rev. Dr. Joan B. Campbell, joined the NCCK in 
reiterating their demand that the "truth should be 
disclosed to the public and the families of the 
victims should be compensated adequately."

     "Grievances filed away without any 
investigation should be reopened and those pending 
should be investigated post haste," she said.  
"Our country, committed to uphold human rights, 
can do no less.  The South Korean victims and 
their relatives deserve justice.

    "When justice is accorded for South Koreans, 
we will then have demonstrated our own humanity," 
she said.  "Then and only then can we send a 
message around a world that has seen too much 
atrocity that no one, not even the military, can 
escape accountability."

    At the same time, Dr. Campbell affirmed that 
"truth leads to reconciliation, as we've learned 
from our sisters and brothers in South Africa."  
And she hailed the courage of the U.S. servicemen 
who testified to their own participation in the 
massacre.  

     "While they share responsibility for these 
atrocities against Korean civilians, they also 
merit our pastoral concern and care.  `Going 
public' with such admissions carries a heavy price 
for themselves and their families, which must be 
acknowledged.  

    The (U.S.) National Council of Churches - the 
nation's leading ecumenical organization with 35 
Protestant and Orthodox member bodies - got 
involved in pressing the Pentagon for answers on 
the "No Gun Ri Incident" at the request of its 
longstanding partner, the National Council of 
Churches in Korea (NCCK).

    Responding to an official request from 
survivors and bereaved family members, the NCCK's 
Committee for Justice and Human Rights had 
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."

    NCC East Asia and the Pacific Office Director 
Victor W.C. Hsu wrote Secretary of Defense William 
S. Cohen on December 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 
Mr. 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 Nokuen-ri."

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