SOUTH KOREA: Gwangju, a model of reconciliation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) May 19, 2010 --

On May 18th, 2010 South Korea celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Gwangju uprising against the military dictatorship of the then President, Mr. Chun Do-Whan. The manner in which the people of Gwangju city, consisting of around 730,000 people at that time, rose up against the military take-over by the President of South Korea in 1980, has very few parallels in history. For about eleven days, the entire population of Gwangju held the city against the military platoons sent by the central government to take over the city. In an interview with The Korea times, Mr. Yoon Kwang-jang, the head of the May 18 Memorial Foundation recalled the incident, thus, "we didn't have a single accident or crime inside the community. We lacked food, money and manpower but we had happiness, friendship, ideas and heart." The surrounding military gave an ultimatum for the people to surrender. During this time, there were hundreds of civilians who were guarding the city.

A group of foreign journalists who were at the town at that time interviewed the armed group after the ultimatum was given by the military. This group discussed among themselves the options open to them. They were of the view that if they surrendered, it would have been demoralizing on the people of the city as well as in South Korea as a whole, and the military leaders would use this as propaganda in order to undermine all resistance to military rule. At the same time, they were aware that if they did not surrender the military will enter and forcibly kill the entire group. Facing these two options, their unanimous decision was that it was better to die resisting than to surrender. They knew clearly the implications of their choice to their personal lives. However, they felt that to inspire resistance to the military dictatorship was the only option they had which was the sacrifice of their lives. The military did open fire on the bases on the ultimatum. The result was that 207 people were killed and thousands were wounded.

The military was forced to revisit this event over the long years as the movement for democracy in South Korea kept up the demand for over a decade following the incident. It was in 1993 when the democratic movement won their final victory over the military dictatorship. Mr. Kim Young-sam, one of the leaders of the movement for democracy was elected to take power. In 1997, Mr. Chun Du-whan and Mr. Ro Tae-woo were brought before the Supreme Court of Korea to answer to the charges of rebellion and killings which were done on their orders at Gwangju. In 1998, Mr. Kim Dae-jung who was exiled for a long time was elected to be President of the South Korea.

In 1997, May 18th was declared as the national day and the graveyard which honors those who were killed in Gwangju who was declared a national monument.

Full statement: http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2010statements/2547/

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