hankyoreh

An investigative committee on civilian massacres by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War holds a press conference in front of the Seoul Central District Court on Apr. 21. A massacre victim partakes via video chat. (Kim Hye-yun, staff photographer)

It was July 2015, and three attorneys from South Korea were sitting near a beach in Da Nang. It was the last day of a “Vietnam peace journey” event organized by the group MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society. They were meeting for the first time with Nguyen Thi Thanh, then 54, in front of a memorial that had been raised in the village of Phong Nhi in the Dien An ward of Dien Ban, a town in Vietnam’s Quang Nam Province. Nguyen had survived a civilian massacre by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War. Until late in the evening, the attorneys kept asking her the question: “What can we do?”

Nguyen was eight years old in February 1968, when she was seriously injured after being struck in the side by a bullet fired near her home by soldiers with the 1st Company of the 1st Battalion of South Korea’s 2nd Marine Brigade (Blue Dragon Unit). That same day, soldiers with the 1st Company assembled around 70 Phong Nhi residents into one place and executed them. Similar massacres of civilians by South Korean troops happened in around 80 places during the Vietnam War, with the death toll estimated at around 9,000 civilians.

Upon their return, the authorities sketched out their game plan for MINBYUN’s response to civilian massacres and sexual assaults during the Vietnam War: “gather testimonies from civilian massacre survivors,” “explore lawsuits to collect compensation from state,” and “write a draft for a special act.”

In all, it took around five years until Apr. 21, when 14 South Korean attorneys filed suit to claim compensation from the state on Nguyen Thi Thanh’s behalf. Still bearing a scar from where she was struck in the side during the massacre, she had one reason for choosing a lawsuit against the state urging the South Korean government to formally admit the misdeeds, rather than pursuing criminal punishment against the individual soldiers responsible:

“Tôi muốn sự thật (I want the truth).”

It’s the same reason that she is demanding compensation amounting to 30,000,100 won [US$24,330] -- the minimum legally prescribed amount for which a court in a civil trial is obligated to state the reason for its ruling in its verdict.

“The content of the norms that perpetrators are obligated to follow and the extent of grief that victims experience don’t differ according to what country the victims come from.”

This sentence was included in the accusation submitted by Nguyen to Seoul Central District Court on Apr. 21 for her lawsuit to demand compensation from the state. Its message is that the South Korean government is by no means exempt from responsibility for the illegal actions of South Korean troops simply because the victims were Vietnamese. At a law office in Seoul’s Seocho District on Apr. 23, the Hankyoreh met with seven attorneys representing Nguyen in her case, including Kwon Min-ji, Kim Nam-ju, Park Jin-seok, Lee Ga-yeong, Lee Seon-gyeong, and Im Jae-seong.

Im Jae-seong, Kwon Min-ji, Kim Nam-ju, Park Jin-seok, Lee Seon-gyeong, and Lee Ga-yeong, attorneys in the legal group MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society

Hani: This is the first time a lawsuit has been filed against the South Korean government by a victim of a civilian massacre during the Vietnam War. How did you become involved as legal representatives?

Park Jin-seok: I was preparing for the judicial examination in the late 1990s when I read a Hankyoreh 21 article titled “'Oh, the South Korean Soldiers Were Terrifying!” I had the vague idea that I wanted to address the civilian massacre issue when I became an attorney, and when MINBYUN announced in 2015 that they were going on the Vietnam peace journey, I followed along. But we were ignorant about the civilian massacres. When we met with survivors of the My Lai Massacre, in which US troops killed around 500 civilians in Vietnam’s Quang Ngai Province, I asked them what kind of compensation the Vietnamese government had provided to victims. So it was a case of someone from a country that had sent troops to fight in Vietnam at the US’ request who was now asking the victims, “Is your country looking after you?” I basically saw us as being a third party.

Im Jae-seong: While I was talking with victims of the My Lai Massacre by US forces, and I asked, “Have you considered filing suit against the US?” During that conversation, it occurred to me that we might be able to file suit in South Korean courts on behalf of the victims of civilian massacres by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War. So it would be a similar framework to the lawsuits within Japan by comfort women survivors and survivors of forced labor mobilization during the Japanese occupation. The survivors didn’t readily respond as to whether they’d considered legal action, but then the interview and village visit were abruptly cancelled. After word got out to Vietnam’s authorities that South Korean lawyers were coming and asking these kinds of questions, we even had police boarding our bus. The only person who agreed to meet with us at the time was Nguyen Thi Thanh, who appeared in front of the monument under her umbrella. This was after she first attested to the massacre in April 2015 to the South Korean National Assembly to demand a formal apology by the South Korean government.

Kim Nam-ju: When we talked to the survivors of the US military’s My Lai Massacre, one of them explained, “We can’t file suit. It’s the policy of the [Communist] party and state in Vietnam to ‘close the door on the past and move ahead into the future.’” Their position was that there had been this unfortunate history, but that we needed to maintain friendly ties with the US and South Koreans, who had been military allies at the time, and increase economic interchange for the sake of economic development. After the event was over, I asked what they thought on a personal level. I asked, “If the party and state were wrong, would you want to file suit?” And they said, “Of course.” I found out later that US courts have a principle of exempting responsibility for actions perpetrated by a government during a war, which meant it was very likely they would lose their case. Given how uncertain things were in terms of legal principles, we couldn’t really rush Nguyen Thi Thanh into a decision on whether to file suit against the South Korean government.

Hani: What is the significance of this lawsuit claiming compensation from the state?

Im: It’s an achievement after 20 years since civilian massacre survivors and South Korean civil society first allied themselves in 2000 with the “We’re Sorry, Vietnam” campaign within South Korean civil society. It was in 2018 that we concretely discussed a lawsuit to demand compensation from the state with Nguyen Thi Thanh. She was getting ready to return to Vietnam after visiting South Korea to appear as a plaintiff in the People's Tribunal on War Crimes by South Korean Troops during the Vietnam War, which was held that April. Emboldened by the victory in the People’s Tribunal, she said she wanted to actually file suit against the state to demand compensation.

Park: I was a representative of the South Korean government as defendant in the People’s Tribunal. Veterans asked me to represent them and sent me information. They said they had been unjustly accused. They had gone to Vietnam at a young age because that’s what they were told to do; they had fought because they were told to fight. But now that they are being lumped together as perpetrators -- as the “veterans responsible for massacring civilians during the Vietnam War” -- it seems like the actions before may have been somewhat extreme.

This lawsuit isn’t designed to demonize the soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War. American soldiers who had nothing to do with the My Lai Massacre had their reputations cleared when the commanding officer, Lieutenant William Calley, was sentenced to life in prison. But until now, no one has ever talked about an investigation or legal responsibility in connection with the Phong Nhi incident.

Hani: What are the structural restraints on suing the state for compensation?

Kim: War crimes don’t leave evidence behind. The villages were razed to the ground and the victims buried. The fact is that the Phong Nhi massacre is the only one for which Korean civic society has acquired enough evidence to meet judicial requirements. The only way to learn the full truth is for the government to carry out an investigation of its own into the injuries perpetrated by Korean soldiers during the Vietnamese War. A special bill to that effect was submitted to the National Assembly on Apr. 3.

Im: We were able to file a lawsuit about the Phong Nhi massacre because we were lucky enough to acquire testimony from the victims, witnesses and perpetrators. But it’s nearly impossible to arrive at the truth under the current approach to litigation, which requires the victims to prove something that happened more than 50 years ago. The victim from the Ha My incident who was the other plaintiff in the People’s Tribunal wasn’t able to join this lawsuit because hardly any evidence remains.

Kim: Some may ask why we’re suing for money if our goal is to uncover the truth. But under the current legal framework, uncovering the truth isn’t a valid reason for filing a lawsuit. The only way to officially confirm the Korean government’s wrongdoing is to sue for damages because of illegal actions committed by the Korean army.

Im: The lawsuit has no doubt aroused prejudice and misunderstanding. Some people wonder why Korea, instead of Vietnam or the US. Nguyen Thi Thanh suffered a serious injury in her stomach when she was shot by unnamed soldiers assigned to the 1st Company of the 1st Battalion of the Blue Dragons, a unit in the South Korean marines. The question is not who should take responsibility for the Vietnam War, but who should take responsibility for the harm suffered by the victims.

Hani: What is the Korean government’s position as the potential defendant in this state reparation lawsuit?

Park: I suppose they’ll repeat that story about Chae Myung-shin, the commander of South Korean forces in Vietnam. He told his troops to protect a single innocent citizen even if that meant failing to catch a hundred members of the Viet Cong [National Liberation Front of South Vietnam]. Even at the time, Chae denied that Korean troops were involved in the Phong Nhi incident. He claimed that members of the Viet Cong had killed civilians while disguised as Korean troops. But the records also state that a US Marine lieutenant named Sylvia saw a shootout occur in Phong Nhi and smoke rising from the village. After a while, South Vietnamese marines brought two children who’d been shot and a woman with a serious bayonet wound on her arm, and the wounded villagers said that Korean troops had tried to kill them.

Lee Seon-gyeong: The testimony of Nguyen Thi Thanh, who was eight years old at the time of the Phong Nhi incident, includes specific details that she couldn’t have known if she hadn’t been there. She explained specifically where her younger sibling was shot in the incident and where she ran after she herself was shot. Her testimony generally agrees with that of her older brother and the other villagers. Their testimony also appears in records compiled by the culture and communications agency in Dien Ban District and in a report prepared by US military inspectors in Vietnam. What we’re focusing on at this point is the inspectors’ report. The report was composed by American soldiers in Vietnam at the time and even includes photographs of the victims that were taken by a US army corporal. It also contains the testimony of South Vietnamese marines who would have no reason to give false testimony about South Korean troops, who were their allies.

Hani: What difficulties do you expect in the course of the lawsuit?

Kim: I hope that this lawsuit will finally dispel the idea that the victims don’t want an official apology. The Ha My victim who was the other plaintiff at the People’s Tribunal spent a lot of time thinking about whether or not she should come to Korea. When her family members learned that Korean veterans of the Vietnam War had been belligerent to Nguyen Thi Thanh upon her first visit to Korea in 2015, they tried to change her mind by warning her that she would be killed if she went to Korea. But the Ha My victim came to Korea nevertheless. She has a burning desire for an apology.

Im: It’s impossible to pursue a lawsuit in another country without the resolve of the injured party. A distinction needs to be drawn between the Vietnamese government and the victims. It’s not the Vietnamese government, but the victims, who are supposed to receive an official apology.

Kwon Min-ji: The South Korean president has never made a statement that could be regarded as an apology for the Vietnamese civilian massacres. After 103 victims of the massacres submitted a petition expressing their official position to the Blue House in Apr. 2019, the Blue House responded by sending those victims its official position. But even that position ultimately confirmed that the government cannot confirm that the massacres of Vietnamese civilians actually occurred.

Hani: The plaintiff Nguyen Thi Thanh is filing this lawsuit after 52 long and painful years. Why does this need to happen now?

Kim: We collected the relevant evidence and were pondering how it could be better interpreted and presented. Along the way, a platoon commander who’d agreed to testify in court passed away. The Phong Nhi incident occurred 52 years ago, and we can’t put this off any longer. There aren’t many survivors, and the people who are still alive are over 80 years old now.

Lee Ga-yeong: We’re filing the lawsuit for state reparation against the Korean government. It’s the government, and not veterans of the war, that we want to hold responsible.

Kim: If any soldiers in the 1st Company who know about this situation are still alive, we urge them to talk to us or talk to the court. I suspect that the incident has weighed down the hearts of the veterans, too. We’d like to help them put that burden down.

Lee Seon-gyeong: Our viewpoint on judgment and the requirements we impose on that shouldn’t depend on who the aggressors and the victims are. That’s what we wrote at the end of our complaint. What judgment would the Korean public make if the victims had been Koreans?

By Joh Yun-yeong, staff reporter

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