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South Koreans Commemorate 50th Anniversary of Mass Killing
With poems, prayers and tears, survivors and relatives on Wednesday commemorated the 50th anniversary of an mass killing of hundreds of civilians by US troops at a railroad bridge early in the Korean War.
In summer heat, several hundred people bowed and burned incense at a makeshift altar in an underpass where survivors said many victims were trapped and killed in a hail of gunfire. Trains periodically passed overhead.
``Like today, that day was sweltering too,'' said Chung Eun-yong, chairman of a survivors' group, the Committee for Unveiling Truth at the No Gun Ri Massacre.
``The tragedy occurred in a small suffocating space where even breathing was difficult and moving your body an inch was extremely painful,'' he said.
Both the Pentagon and South Korea opened inquiries last year after The Associated Press quoted US veterans and South Korean survivors as saying American GIs carried out a mass killing of refugees July 26-28, 1950, at the hamlet of No Gun Ri. Ex-GIs spoke of 100, 200 or simply hundreds dead. The South Koreans say up to 300 were killed.
The alleged shootings were preceded by an aerial strafing of a refugee column in which survivors and ex-GIs estimate about 100 civilians died.
US archival documents showed that orders were issued in the early weeks of the war to US ground troops and Air Force planes to open fire and prevent civilian refugees crossing the American lines for fear they may have included enemy infiltrators.
Chung and other survivors, who want compensation, have complained that Washington has been slow to release information on its investigation. The US military has denied accusations that it was not sharing enough information with South Korean investigators.
The Pentagon had originally planned to complete its investigation by June 25 - the anniversary of the war's outbreak. But it now says the work won't be finished until this fall.
At the memorial service, 74-year-old Sohn Hyun-uk was among the survivors who described the shooting at No Gun Ri, 100 miles (161 kilometers) southeast of the capital of Seoul.
``I saw sparks from rifles firing on the hills in the distance and then bullets ricocheted on the concrete walls like beans popping around in a hot frying pan. People died,'' said Sohn, whose 14-year-old brother died under the railroad bridge.
South Korean investigators have found 316 bullet marks and 59 bullets or bullet fragments stuck in the concrete walls of the bridge, according to Seoul's defense ministry.
They have marked these areas with circles and triangles of white paint and have removed some bullet samples as part of their investigation.
Park Jung-dong, 69, said he fled the site of the alleged mass killing on the first night. When he returned several days later, he said, the bodies of his parents were so decomposed that he was only able to recognize them by their clothes.
Another survivor, 63-year-old Yang Hye-suk, lost her left eye in the shooting. Her grandmother and two brothers were killed.
``I still feel a lot of pain. The uncovering of truth doesn't help me at all. When I am busy doing family chores, then I forget this tragedy,'' Yang said. ``But whenever I hear news about No Gun Ri, then the horrible scene comes to my mind and hurts me again.''
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