Citizens’ court to investigate Vietnam War atrocities committed by South Korean troops

Posted on : 2017-11-22 16:02 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
A three-day trial will be held next year to demand compensation from the SK government
Yoon Mi-hyang
Yoon Mi-hyang

A “citizens’ court” will be held to investigate the horrors of civilian massacres carried out by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War. On Nov. 21, the Preparatory Committee for the Citizens’ Peace Court to Learn the Truth about the South Korean Army’s Massacres of Civilians during the Vietnam War held a press conference at the Press Center in downtown Seoul.

“We will be organizing a citizens’ peace court in Seoul to investigate the massacres of civilians during the Vietnam War and to hold the South Korean government accountable. This three-day trial will begin on Apr. 20 of next year, which is the 50th anniversary of the civilian massacre during the Vietnam War,” the committee said during the press conference.

The citizens’ peace court will be focusing on two of the most infamous civilian massacres, one of which occurred in the villages of Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat and the other in the village of Ha My, in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Nam, in 1968. On Feb. 12 of that year, 74 people were slain by South Korean troops in Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat; ten days later, another 135 were killed in Ha My. It is estimated that there were more than 9,000 victims of the civilian massacres during the Vietnam War, including these two incidents.

The trial will take the form of a lawsuit for state compensation, with Vietnamese victims of the massacres by South Korean troops and family members of the deceased acting as the plaintiffs and the South Korean government acting as the defendant. While the rulings of a citizens’ court are not legally binding because the court lacks official status, they are widely used to hold governments responsible for their crimes.

One of the best-known citizens’ courts was held in Tokyo to hold the Japanese government accountable for the damage done to the former comfort women. The preparatory committee intends to use the material compiled during the citizens’ peace court as the basis for filing an actual damages lawsuit against the South Korean government in the second half of 2018. It is also working on a campaign to draft legislation that would require a fact-finding inquiry to be organized and government agencies to make public the documents in their possession.

The preparatory committee is composed of a legal team, consisting of 12 lawyers, and an investigation team, consisting of over 10 researchers. The investigation team is planning to collect testimony from South Korean veterans of the Vietnam War and to acquire documents kept by the South Korean government. The investigation team has already officially confirmed that South Korea’s National Intelligence Service is in possession of documents from a 1969 investigation by the Korean Central Intelligence Agency into the issue of civilian massacres during the Vietnam War, and the team has filed a freedom of information request for these documents.

“Twenty years have passed since the massacre of innocent people in Vietnam, but the government has not even carried out an official investigation into this. What is not remembered is forgotten, and history that is forgotten is repeated. If we are not to forget our past mistakes, we need to uncover the truth about the massacres of innocent civilians in Vietnam, which should be the basis for an official apology by the government,” said Jung Yeong-sun, chair of MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society and co-president of the preparatory committee.

By Ko Han-sol, staff reporter

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