NHRC Issues Recommendation to the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Prime Minister to Enact Special Act for Fact Finding
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a recommendation to the speaker of the National Assembly and the prime minister to enact a comprehensive law to investigate, on a nation-wide scale, the mass killings of civilians in events surrounding the Korean War. The intent behind the NHRC recommendation is to urge the government to take a lead role in bringing to light the truth behind such mass killings and restoring honor to the victims.
As of July 2003, 68 complaints petitioning for NHRC investigation into allegations that, ”during, before and after the Korean War, civilians were sacrificed by those invested with governmental authority (police, the armed forces, United Nations Forces)” have been filed. Because these cases stretch back some 50 years into the past or beyond, the NHRC mandate requires rejection of such petitions on the basis of the time-limitation clause of the National Human Rights Commission Act (article 32: clause 1: paragraph 4).
However, considering the intent behind the formation of the NHRC—for the protection and furtherance of human rights—these cases contain grave human rights issues and should be pursued in a comprehensive way. The NHRC issued the recommendation for legislation of a special act on the following grounds: up until now, overall governmental efforts toward uncovering the truth on this issue have been inadequate; there is legal precedence for legislating such an act; and bills for related special acts are pending in the National Assembly.
For the most part, the full story behind the civilian massacres during the time period surrounding the Korean War have not yet been brought to light. Considering that suspicions and allegations have been repeatedly raised as to the role of wrongful exercise of state power in bringing about such mass civilian killings, the state has the obligation to conduct a full investigation into what exactly happened to dispel doubts and to restore honor to the victims.
To this day, governmental efforts toward uncovering the truth about mass killings of civilians in events surrounding the Korean War have been limited to incidents that took place in a few specific regions or in accordance with different special acts: investigation into a limited number of regional incidents by the National Assembly 1960 Special Investigative Committee on Civilian Massacre and subsequent recommendation for legislation of a special act; the recent efforts around the Geochang County incident; and the events surrounding the April 3rd Cheju island incident.
However, it will take more than the legislation of isolated special acts independently looking into different cases in different regions to assess the true scale of civilian mass killings surrounding the Korean War and take appropriate follow-up measures. Instead, such scattered approaches in the past had, in reality, simply worked to allow the government to claim closure and absolve the government from taking further responsibility. The NHRC recommendation for a special law was issued after serious deliberation of these past precedents and of the key issues involved.
