hankyoreh

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea (TRCK), which was founded with the goal of establishing ethnic legitimacy and achieving citizen unity through determining the truth of Korean history, concluded its operations yesterday with a report summarizing five years of activity. Established in December 2005 according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, this commission has delved into the truth of incidents related to the anti-Japan independence movement, civilian massacres around the time of the Korean War, and illegal human rights infringements by public authorities.
In the short space of five years, the commission achieved substantial results. To begin with, it brought to light the truth for 8,468 cases, some 80 percent of the 10,860 petitions it received. It located socialist-affiliated independence activists who had been buried, and it confirmed that civilians were illegally executed by the military and police at locations throughout the country around the time of the Korean War. Also brought to light were the manufacturing of charges by state authorities, such as the case with the Minjok Ilbo's Cho Yong-su, as well as advertising suppression in the Dong-A Ilbo and forced dismissals of journalists by the Chun Doo-hwan government. The commission also showed that a series of espionage cases in the 1980s, including the “Aram-hoe incident,” were distorted or concocted entirely through illegal incarceration and acts of brutality.
These efforts were successful in extracting a state apology in 2008 from then President Roh Moo-hyun, who apologized for the Ulsan Bodo League incident in which some 870 civilians were massacred by the military and police. The commission’s efforts also led to the restoration of justice through retrials by the judiciary.
Still, one would find it difficult to say that the commission succeeded, as originally hoped, in achieving reconciliation by bringing the truth to light. Presently, ten groups, including the National Association of Family Members of Korean War Civilian Massacre Victims, are decrying the final report, saying that its inadequate content granted an indulgence to massacre perpetrators. In academia as well, some critics have contended that the report diluted the deliberate brutality of state authorities by presenting executions by the military and police and by members of the left wing side-by-side, and that by focusing on U.S. accounts regarding civilian massacres by U.S. forces, it played up the perceived inevitability of those deaths.
A large part of the blame for this outcome falls on the Lee administration, which has been opposed to addressing these historical issues. The chairman appointed by this administration led the way in diluting his own commission’s powers, for example by making statements that flew in the face of previous commission decisions. And the military and police, which in many instances were the perpetrators, took advantage of this atmosphere to put off implementing the commission’s recommendations, even going so far to make moves to overturn the decisions. As a result, true reconciliation and reckoning with the past ended up being put off until another day. The commission ends on a note of disappointment.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]