hankyoreh

The two Nguyens hold a press conference in front of the Blue House after submitting their petition for victims of civilian massacres by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War on Apr. 4.(Joh Yun-yeong

Nguyen Thi Thanh, 59, is a survivor of a civilian massacre by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War. When she was seven years old, she lost her family members and suffered a bullet wound to her left side when South Korean soldiers indiscriminately slaughtered civilians in the village of Phong Nhi/Phong Nhat in Vietnam’s Quang Nam Province. Seventy-four villagers were killed on that day alone. South Korea sent 312,000 troops to Vietnam between September 1964 and 1972 –during which around 80 massacres of Vietnamese civilians were committed, with a total estimated death toll as high as 9,000.

On Apr. 4 of this year, Nguyen and 102 other victims submitted a petition to the South Korean government demanding an investigation into the massacres, a formal apology for the civilian losses, and recovery measures for the damages. Their claim was that Seoul “continues not to acknowledge the truth of the civilian massacres during the Vietnam War despite numerous opportunities, and has not taken any measures to apologize or restoring the victims’ honor.” It marks the first time Vietnamese survivors of civilian massacres during the war have petitioned a South Korean state institution.

staff reporter)

On Sept. 9, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) gave a belated response to the petition – long after the 90-day official response deadline had elapsed. It claimed that no information regarding civilian massacres by South Korean troops had been found in any of its documents, and said that while a joint investigation with Vietnamese authorities would have to come ahead of an independent investigation by South Korea, the “conditions had not yet been formed” for a joint investigation by the South Korean and Vietnamese governments.

Civic and social groups objected to what amounted – despite its decorous language – to an official rejection by Seoul of victims’ demand to know why South Korean troops had shot them and massacred their family members. Sixty groups, including the Korea-Vietnam Peace Foundation and Citizen Association for Thinking about Vietnam and Korea, held a press conference in front of the MND complex in Seoul’s Yongsan District on the morning of Sept. 26, urging the government to take a more active stance in resolving historical issues.

The members identified two main problems with the MND’s response. First, noting that the civilian massacres during the war had aspects of war crimes, they argued that large-scale war times were “very unlikely” to have been indicated directly in the South Korean military’s combat records. Their position is that the ministry’s claim not to have found evidence of the massacres in an examination of its official documents showed an utter lack of understanding of the nature of war crimes by the state. They also said the MND could not be trusted in its reply about there being “no related records” when the National Intelligence Service (NIS) has declined to disclose even a list of investigation documents on the Vietnam War civilian massacres for the past three years, despite a court ruling. They claimed that ahead of a joint investment with Vietnamese authorities, the South Korean government could easily conduct a primary investigation using documents in its own possession and the US’.

Nguyen Thi Thanh

The groups also urged Seoul to comply with the principle of a victim-centered resolution. “Why is it that the same victim-centered approach adopted in demanding that Japan assume responsibility for illegal actions during colonization is only regarded as secondary when it comes to Vietnamese victimized by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War?” they asked. They went on to demand that Seoul at least set up an official investigation body with participating civilian experts for the incidents outlined by the 103 petitioners and, if the findings show a strong probability of legal violations by South Korean forces, to adopt measures to restore the victims’ honor, including an official apology and memorial projects for the affected regions.

By Lee Yu-jin, staff reporter

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