wfn.org | NCC Welcomes Probe of 1950 Massacre in Korea

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

5-October-1999 
99328 
 
    NCC Welcomes Probe of 1950 Massacre in Korea 
 
    Council Was Among the First to Call for Investigation 
 
    by Religion News Service 
 
WASHINGTON-The National Council of Churches, one of the key groups pushing 
for an 
investigation of claims that U.S. military personnel participated in the 
massacre of some 400 Koreans in 1950, has welcomed the U.S. government's 
decision to probe the incident. 
 
    "Truth should be disclosed to the public, and the families of the 
victims should be compensated adequately," the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, 
NCC general secretary, said in a statement. 
 
    "Grievances filed away without any investigation should be reopened and 
those pending should be investigated post haste," Campbell added.  "Our 
country, committed to uphold human rights, can do no less.  The South 
Korean victims and their relatives deserve justice." 
 
    On Sept. 29, the Associated Press, citing several former American 
soldiers, reported that U.S. soldiers had indeed machine-gunned hundreds of 
Korean refugees trapped under a bridge near the South Korean village of No 
Gun Ri in July 1950 during the early days of the Korean War. 
 
    For nearly half a century, the U.S. Army has brushed aside the 
allegations and dismissed claims seeking compensation by survivors of the 
victims. 
 
    The National Council of Churches, together with its South Korean 
counterpart, the National Council of Churches in Korea, has been pressing 
for an inquiry into the incident since last December. 
 
    In March, the U.S. Army told the NCC it had "found no information to 
substantiate the claim that U.S. Army soldiers perpetrated a massacre of 
South Korean civilians" at No Gun Ri. 
 
    But the AP report cited a dozen former GIs whose accounts supported 
that of the South Korean villagers and the two church councils pressing the 
charges. 
 
    Campbell hailed the courage of the former servicemen who were willing 
to talk to the AP. 
 
    "While they share responsibility for these atrocities against Korean 
civilians, they also merit our pastoral concern and care," she said. 
"Going public with such admissions carries a heavy price for themselves and 
their families, which must be acknowledged." 
 
    The NCC became involved in the case at the request of the Korean church 
council and pressed the Pentagon with information assembled by the Korean 
church body. 
 
    Although the Pentagon dismissed the Korean and American church 
councils' information, Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera called the AP 
report "very disturbing" and promised "a thorough review" of the 
allegations.  Secretary of Defense William Cohen, in a letter to Caldera, 
called for "whatever resources are appropriate to accomplish this review as 
thoroughly and as quickly as possible."  

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