Questions remain surrounding order to fire on Gwangju civilians

Posted on : 2017-08-25 19:24 KST Modified on : 2017-08-25 19:24 KST
Sealed military records hold answers to government response to 1980 protests
Soldiers brutally suppress democratization protesters after the government declared martial law during the 5.18 Gwangju Democratization Movement.  (provided by 5.18 Memorial Society)
Soldiers brutally suppress democratization protesters after the government declared martial law during the 5.18 Gwangju Democratization Movement. (provided by 5.18 Memorial Society)

Since the democracy movement in June 1987, numerous investigations – including the National Assembly’s probe into the 5.18 Gwangju Democratization Movement, the prosecutors’ investigations between 1995 and 1997 into the Gwangju uprising and the military coup of Dec. 12, 1979, along with subsequent trials -- have uncovered the facts about the distribution of live bullets to South Korean troops maintaining martial law in Gwangju on the evening of May 20, 1980.

What these investigations never turned up, however, was who exactly had given the orders to open fire. The military has always maintained that the firing began accidentally in self-defense. But on Aug. 24, the May 18 Memorial Foundation made public a classified document called the “Gwangju Uprising,” which appears to have been drafted by the Gwangju 505 Branch of the Defense Security Command and contains the phrase “issuance of an order to open fire (20 rounds per person).” This passage suggests that an order to open fire was actually given.

■ Shots fired before troops were authorized to defend themselves

The time of composition provided by the document is “12:20 am on May 21, 1980.” The security detail of the DSC branch in Gwangju at the time believed that the order to load live bullets and to fire if an incident occurred had been given at “11:15 pm [on May 20].” At 11 pm on May 20, four citizens of Gwangju were shot and killed by soldiers belonging to the 3rd Airborne Brigade (commanded by Choi Se-chang) in front of Gwangju Station, near Chonnam National University.

A crucial point is that the phrase “issuance of an order to open fire” appears in a report by the security detail of the DSC branch immediately after the military fired the first shots in Gwangju. Between 1 and 5 pm on May 21, 34 citizens were killed by concentrated fire by airborne troops on Geumnam Avenue in Gwangju. It was only after this, at 8:30 pm on May 21, that martial law headquarters first announced it would authorize troops to defend themselves and then actually did so.

During the investigations in 1995 and 1997, the prosecutors concluded that these shots were fired in self-defense, explaining that “there is no conclusive evidence that [shots were fired] in response to a specific order given by a superior commander or by a specific person in the command structure.” In July 2007, the Defense Ministry’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission published a report on the results of its investigation into [the military coups on] Dec. 12, 1979, and May 17, 1980, and the Gwangju uprising, but this investigation also failed to determine who gave the order to open fire.

“Even in an urgent situation, the use of firearms required the approval of the Chairman of the Army Chiefs of Staff. Even though opening fire was so important that it required the Chairman’s approval, no official reports were made about the distribution and discharge of live rounds at Gwangju. Not only was no one held responsible, but certain participants were awarded medals of merit for bravery. This permits the conjecture that [shots were fired] with at least the tacit approval of the martial law command,” the Commission said.

■ Suspicions about a separate command structure

So who was the superior who gave the “order to open fire” mentioned in the document made public by the May 18 Memorial Foundation? The 3rd Airborne Brigade and the 11th Airborne Brigade, which were deployed to Gwangju, opened fire without receiving the permission of the 2nd Army Command or the Training and Doctrine Commander, which were above them in the chain of command. Researchers have argued that the person who gave the order to fire can be found in an unofficial command structure connecting Choi Se-chang, commander of the 3rd Airborne Brigade, Jung Ho-yong, Special Warfare Commander, and Chun Doo-hwan, Defense Security Commander.

An interview in the May 1989 edition of the “Kyunghyang Monthly” titled “Jung Ho-yong reveals who was responsible for the Gwangju uprising” contains remarks suggesting that there were two command structures. “As the situation deteriorated, there was a flood of urgent messages asking about whether to open fire. I wasn’t in the chain of command, but I gave orders absolutely forbidding the soldiers to open fire,” Jung said during this interview.

But Jung strongly maintained that he had not gone to Gwangju on May 21. This has prompted allegations that Chun Doo-hwan and other members of his military junta exercised effective control over the martial law forces in Gwangju at the time.

■ Internal military documents must be disclosed

Before we can learn the truth about who gave the orders to open fire, internal military documents connected with the Gwangju uprising will have to be made public. The records of the prosecutors’ investigations show that some of the records of the military’s investigation into the order to open fire are still under seal because of the Military Secrets Protection Act.

The prosecutors released its records of the investigation into the distribution of live rounds to the 3rd Airborne Brigade in Gwangju on the evening of May 20, but they redacted sections of the records. The records of the investigation into Brigadier General Choi Ung, the commander of the 11th Airborne Brigade, which fired on citizens in front of the old South Jeolla Provincial Office on May 21, were omitted altogether.

“The questions of who gave the order to open fire and the separate command structures need to be answered by a new fact-finding commission that should be authorized to investigate these matters,” said Kim Yang-rae, Permanent Director of the May 18 Memorial Foundation.

By Jung Dae-ha, Gwangju correspondent

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