Dispute erupts over Vietnam War memorial at massacre site

Posted on : 2017-08-20 11:23 KST Modified on : 2017-08-20 11:23 KST
South Korean veterans anger local villagers by demanding structure’s removal
A memorial stone at the site of a Vietnam War massacre at the village of Ha My in Quang Nam Province.  The memorial was covered by a marble slab with a lotus flower mural after protests by the Korean Vietnam Veterans Welfare Association
A memorial stone at the site of a Vietnam War massacre at the village of Ha My in Quang Nam Province. The memorial was covered by a marble slab with a lotus flower mural after protests by the Korean Vietnam Veterans Welfare Association

A group of South Korean veterans who fought in the Vietnam War is picking a fight with a Vietnamese village that set up a memorial to locals massacred by South Korean troops.

“We’ve learned that members of a Vietnam veterans’ group visited the village of Ha My in Vietnam on May 12 and offered to help them build roads and parks in exchange for getting rid of the memorial,” said a spokesperson for the Korea-Vietnam Peace Foundation, an organization dedicated to digging up the truth about the Vietnam War, on Aug. 17. Ha My Village (located in Dien Duong Rural Commune, Dien Ban District, Quang Nam Province, in central Vietnam) is where 135 villagers were massacred by troops from the “Blue Dragons” 2nd Marine Brigade on Feb. 22, 1968.

The memorial stone in Ha My was erected in 2001 with funding provided by the Korean Vietnam Veterans’ Welfare Association. According to this veterans’ group, it had meant for the monument to honor the memories of the dead on both sides – the villagers and the South Korean soldiers. But the surviving families and village residents had agreed to allow the memorial stone to go up on the condition that the veterans’ group acknowledge its wrongdoing and commemorate the local victims, and the resulting monument contained a detailed description of the massacre carried out by South Korean troops, which was contrary to the intentions of the veterans’ group. After this came to the group’s attention following the memorial’s creation, the group requested its removal. An association of surviving families at Ha My covered up the memorial stone with a marble slab bearing a lotus design, with the hope of someday bringing the original monument back into the light.

This old conflict was stirred up once again by the recent visit to Ha My village by members of the veterans’ group, including its former president. The visitors were angered to see that the monument had been poorly maintained – for example, a sign crediting the veterans’ group for funding the memorial was missing – and they demanded the village leaders to remove the memorial, but a member of the People’s Council of Dien Duong Rural Commune (to which Ha My belongs) rejected this demand.

“The memorial stone is our history, and we can’t remove it.” the council leader reportedly said. “In fact, we’re planning to remove the marble slab with the lotus flower design and reveal the memorial at the appropriate time.”

“Demanding that the village remove the memorial stone now, 16 years after it was set up, is yet another insult and injury for the victims, their surviving families and the villagers,” said a spokesperson for the Korea-Vietnam Peace Foundation.

While the veterans’ group acknowledged that it was quarreling with the village over the memorial stone, it denied having been the first to bring up the structure’s removal. “It’s true that we were really upset about the disappearance of the sign next to the memorial crediting our association with funding its construction. It was the members of the People’s Committee who brought up the idea of having us help them build a road. All we said was that we would only help them if they put the sign back up and got rid of the memorial [containing the word ‘massacre’],” a member of the veterans’ group said.

The fact that the dispute over the memorial stone is being rehashed one year before the 50th anniversary of the massacre at Ha My village may epitomize the current differing attitudes in South Korea and Vietnam. “The squabbling over the memorial reflects the fact that South Korea has still not managed to investigate the civilian massacres or to offer a decent apology even after half a century,” said Ku Su-jeong, director of the Korean-Vietnamese Peace Foundation.

By Hwang Keum-bi, staff reporter

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