South Korea Commission Probes Civilian Massacres by U.S. in Korean War : Indybay

President Bush heads to China today for the last leg of his three-nation trip to Asia. The press has been focusing heavily on his decision to visit Beijing for the opening Ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games amid criticism of China"s human rights record. But there has been hardly any coverage of another story, this one out of South Korea, where the president held summit talks on Wednesday.

It was revealed this week that South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission is concluding the U.S. military indiscriminately killed large groups of South Korean civilians during the Korean War in the early 1950s.

The Commission has more than 200 cases on its docket, based on hundreds of citizens’ petitions recounting U.S. bombing and strafing runs on South Korean refugee gatherings in 1950 and ’51. The citizen petitions have accumulated since 1999, when the Associated Press confirmed the 1950 refugee killings at No Gun Ri in 1950, where some 400 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed by US troops.

Concluding its first investigations, the commission is urging the South Korean government to seek U.S. compensation for victims. South Korean legislators have also asked a U.S. Senate committee to join them in investigating declassified evidence that American ground commanders had adopted a policy of deliberately targeting refugees.

Charles Hanley is a special correspondent for the Associated Press who has written extensively about the Korean War. He was part of the AP team that won the Pulitzer prize for investigative journalism in 2000 for their coverage of the massacre at No Gun Ri. He is co-author of the book, “The Bridge at No Gun Ri: A Hidden Nightmare from the Korean War.” He joins me in the firehouse studio.

Charles Hanley, special correspondent for the Associated Press who has written extensively about the Korean War. He was part of the AP team in 2000 that won the Pulitzer prize for investigative journalism for their coverage of the massacre at No Gun Ri. He is co-author of the book, “The Bridge at No Gun Ri: A Hidden Nightmare from the Korean War.”

International | Anti-War

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