Hmm, "soldiers' tenacity", nice word
Btw, you forgot to post articles like this. This shows how advanced your tactics were and what made the "highly successful kill ratio"
SOUTH KOREA: Exposed South Korean Soldiers Massacred Vietnamese during Vietnam War
ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEAL PROGRAMME
AHRC UA Index: 000224 24 February 2000
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UA 07/00: WAR CRIMES - civilians massacred
SOUTH KOREA: Exposed South Korean Soldiers Massacred Vietnamese during Vietnam War
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Last year, the Associated Press reports exposed that U.S soldiers massacred Korean civilians during the Korean War and the most documented of these killing happen in Nogunri. It is well known that Korean soldiers participated in Vietnam war from 1963 to 1973. Recently, a Korean newspaper exposed that Korean soldiers had massacred innocent vietnamese civilians. The Asian Human Rights Commission supports the initiative of the Peace Committee of Korean House for International Solidarity (KHIS] in this appeal to seek justice for victims of war crimes.
The painful history of Nogunri's victims has been ignored for fifty years, but at last the facts have come to light. Recently it has come to our attention that during the Vietnam War Korean soldiers also conducted massacres of innocent civilians. Testimony of such slaughter of Vietnamese
civilians by Korean soldiers in Vietnam war was given in an article of the Korean weekly magazine Hankyoreh 21, titled "Remember Vietnam's Soul".
Currently, discussion of these massacres has become a prominent issue in the Vietnamese media.
Korean soldiers participated in the Vietnam war from 1963 to 1973. They killed approximately 41,400 of the enemy. However, an unknown number of ordinary Vietnamese people tragically lost their lives as well. The Ministry of Culture and Communication of Vietnam has publicly estimated that the number of innocent victims killed in the provinces like QUANG NGAI, QUANG NAM, and BINH DINH was approximately 5,000 people. It was reported that most Vietnamese people have not forgotten the shock of the
massacres yet and the mental anguish of the survivors have had serious and had lasting effects.
The Korean citizens participated in various campaigns on massacres in Vietnam; writing cards to apology through the coordination of KHIS and collecting contributions with Hankyoreh 21 to build schools and hospitals in Vietnam in districts that suffered the most damage. Through these
activities, they have asked Vietnamese pardon of past crimes committed by Korean soldiers.
The Korean public opinion on this issue is shown below:
1. The real facts of the massacre should be publicly revealed 66.3%
2. There is a need to dispatch a fact-finding mission 66.9%
3. The Korean government should make a public apology and provide compensation to Vietnamese victims 77.9%
*source: Hankyoreh survey
Nonetheless,the Korean government has avoided addressing this matter at all. "Nogunri massacre" during the Korean War and "Vietnamese Civilians Massacre" during the Vietnam War are representative cases of the twentieth century in which Korea was at one time a victim, and at another, an oppressor.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
We are requesting yourself and your organization's support in solidarity to seek justice for victims of massacres in Vietnam. The statement below supports efforts to persuade the Korean government to:
* establish a fact-finding mission
* issue a public apology to the Vietnamese victims of the massacres.
Place your name and Organistion, endorsing the statement below and send it to KHIS. The statemen will be published in the Hankyoreh Newspaper with the list of supporters.
SEND TO:
Korean House for International Solidarity (KHIS)
Fax: 822-3673-5627
E-mail address: <khis21@nownuri.net>
<khis21@hotmail.com>
---------------------------- STATEMENT ------------------------------
To : President Kim Dae jung
We ask that you make an inquiry to establish the facts concerning the "Vietnamese Civilian Massacre" by Korean soldiers and make a public apology for these incidents to the Vietnamese people.
We have heard that an estimated 5,000 Vietnamese civilians were massacred by Korean soldiers in the provinces of QUANG NGAI, QUANG NAM, and BINH DINH during the course of the Vietnam war. Many innocent people including
women, children and the elderly were killed without regard, and the massacres have left deep scars on the memories of the survivors. For this reason we request an official apology from those responsible in the military for ordering the operations and compensation to the innocent victims of the massacres. It is certain that we will not be able to enter
the new millenium with a clear conscience if we don't make an effort to console the grief of the Vietnamese. We must do our best to uncover the truth and prevent tragedies like these fromhappening in the future. Once more, we stress that the true peace will only be accomplished by having the
upright courage to uncover the facts of the case. Even during the passing from one millenium to the next, the truth of these tragic massacres cannot be suppressed.
We urge the Korean government to:
1. Establish the facts of the case. Soldiers who took part in the the war have suggested that first of all, the real facts of the massacre should be revealed. We have agree with this. The Korean government should establish a joint inquiry commission with the Vietnam government.
2. If the recent reports prove to be well-founded, the Korean government should apologize publicly to the Vietnam government and the people by accepting responsibility for the occurrence of the massacres.
3. The Korean government should give recompensation and to the survivors of the massacres.
4. The Korean government should compensate the Korean soldiers who were forced to commit these inhumane acts and have since been suffering from the guilty consciences until now.
5. Please, provide financial support for inquiry into the real events of the massacre.
Your name:
Organization:
Posted on 2000-02-24
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2000/366
or this:
http://www.vietquoc.com/jan15-00.htm
The massacre reported in the Hankyere might be the same incident that many Vietnamese heard in 1966. The rumor ran that in an operation, the Korean troops encountered strong fire from the communist unit in a village. The Korean unit encircled the village, sealed off all possible escape routes. They used megaphones to warn civilians to get out of their village in a given time or get killed when the Koreans came in.
After the deadline, the Koreans launched a fierce attack and seized the objective in a short time. In their search throughout the village, the Koreans shot to kill every single moving creature they met. According to the rumor, more than 300 peasants - old and young women and men, children - were massacred, plus several scores of enemy troops that mingled with the villagers
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/patrick.guenin/cantho/vnnews/korea.htm
South Korea's dark Vietnam war legacy lingers
HANOI - In central Vietnam's Binh Dinh province stands a large gravestone with 1,004 names etched in the granite -- victims, local officials say, of a killing spree by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War. The locals say 1,000 people, mainly civilians, died in the six-week rampage in early 1966 -- including 380 in one day.
Now a Korean journalist who has spent several months documenting harrowing accounts of survivors from the alleged killings in Binh Dinh says it's time Seoul apologised for the brutality of its troops and paid compensation to victims. Ku Su-Jeong, who works part-time for South Korea's Hankyoreh21 magazine, plans to give a speech on her findings next month at a human rights conference on Korea's Cheju island, just before the 25th anniversary of the end of the war in April. Ku stumbled upon the gravestone while doing research on Seoul's involvement in the war, and began interviewing victims whose stories invoked memories of an infamous massacre of Vietnamese by U.S. troops at My Lai village two years later. Ku hopes her paper will draw attention to the issue, although an article she wrote for her magazine last May drew only a muted response from Korean veterans who insisted it was unclear if civilians were killed in Binh Dinh.
``South Koreans must know about these massacres. They cast shame on us and we have a duty to apologise,'' Ku said. During the Vietnam War, Seoul wholeheartedly supported U.S.-backed South Vietnam, afraid that Washington might withdraw American troops stationed in South Korea. About 300,000 Korean troops fought in the war, and they had a fearsome reputation among ordinary Vietnamese.
Women, Children and elderly killed
Three local officials, including one who said he survived the alleged killings, spoke at length in telephone interviews with Reuters about the events in Binh Dinh. The officials, who declined to be identified, said that in early 1966, Korean troops entered the then Binh An commune, a collection of villages within Tay Son district which they believed was a Viet Cong stronghold. The Koreans were intent on flushing out opposing forces but civilians bore the brunt of their actions, the officials said.
An official at Tay Son's Communist Party history unit said the attacks began in early 1966 and culminated in a massacre of 380 people on February 26, 1966, at a place called Go Dai.
``They (the Korean troops) herded people up onto the hill, shot them and threw grenades,'' he said. ``In some cases they tied old men up... until they died. They tore children apart and threw their (limbs) onto trees,'' he said, adding that some Viet Cong were also killed. The Korean troops threw some bodies into an existing 150-200 metre (500-650 ft) long trench, the official said. Survivors later buried most of the rest of the dead. The names of those who died at Go Dai, along with other known victims of the six-week killing period, were carved on the gravestone, the official said. The number totalled 1,004.
``There has been a lot of propaganda about this in the area, but because no correspondents witnessed it, I think that is why no one outside knows about it,'' he said. One local official who said he survived the attacks reported that the main victims were women, children and the elderly. ``It was all part of a Korean campaign called 'burn all, destroy all and kill all'. They aimed to clear the whole area, which is why they killed old people and children. They also killed cattle, burned houses and paddy (rice),'' he said. A People's Committee official in Tay Son district also confirmed the details, saying 1,200 people were killed. A government official in Hanoi said central authorities had later investigated what happened at Binh Dinh and compiled detailed reports, which showed more than 1,000 people were killed during the period, including around 380 at Go Dai.
Let bygones be bygones, says Vietnam
However, when asked for comment and to confirm the alleged killings, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry said it did not want to dwell on the matter. Reuters could not visit Binh Dinh to interview survivors. Foreign journalists need approval to report outside Hanoi, and the Foreign Ministry said in December Binh Dinh officials were too busy with the aftermath of recent floods to receive visitors.
``South Korean troops committed crimes against Vietnamese people. With humanitarian and peaceful neighbourly traditions, it is Vietnam's policy to close the past...,'' the Foreign Ministry said in a statement in response to questions. South Korea's embassy in Hanoi has declined to comment on the general issue of Korean actions during the Vietnam War. Asked if Reuters could view official reports on the killings kept at the War Crimes Department within the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the Foreign Ministry said officials there were also too busy.
The accounts of the killings by South Korean troops in Binh Dinh come not long after Seoul launched a probe into an alleged massacre at a village on its own soil by U.S. soldiers in the early days of the 1950-53 Korean War. Villagers and U.S. veterans were quoted as saying hundreds of innocent people were killed by the U.S. military at No Gun Ri. Professor Chun Kyung-soo at Seoul National University, who has spent years researching the role of Korean troops in Vietnam, feels there is a double standard.
``This issue (of Korean actions in Vietnam) has long been very sensitive in Korea,'' Chun told Reuters. Publicity about alleged Korean massacres during the Vietnam War stands in sharp contrast to the events on March 16, 1968, when U.S. troops commanded by Army Lieutenant William Calley entered My Lai village and gunned down 500 civilians. That massacre reverberated around the world when it was exposed and became synonymous with the horror of the conflict.
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/patrick.guenin/cantho/vnnews/korea.htm
Seoul expressed "regret" over wartime actions
During a visit to Hanoi in 1998, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung expressed regret over Korean actions in the Vietnam War, but he did not apologise. Vietnam responded by saying it sought no apology from any nation that fought on its soil. Long-time Vietnam watchers say Hanoi does not like to highlight specific horrors from decades of wars against the French and then the U.S.-backed South Vietnam.
Carl Thayer, an expert on Vietnam at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii, said the killing of civilians by Koreans had largely faded from view because the Vietnam War was mainly seen as an American war. ``Vietnamese propagandists always make a distinction between the American government and the American people,'' he said. ``In their view the Vietnam War was a war launched by a wicked government. Koreans, Thais and Australians were all lackeys. ``It is easier to point the propaganda finger at one enemy, several only clouds the issue,'' he said.
Hanoi also did not want historical baggage to weigh it down as it sought aid and investment from the region, Thayer added.
Sorry, i cant write anything more. I'm going to go vommit now
