Lingering conflicts and disputes over May 18 Gwangju Pro-Democracy Movement
- 5 years ago
5.18 민주화운동 관련 현재까지 지속되는 갈등과 논쟁
39 years have passed since the pro-democracy movement,... but there are still some disputes over what exactly happened in Gwangju.
Today’s court hearing could have provided meaningful evidence to resolve some of those issues.
Lee Min-sun explains further.
It's been 39 years since the May 18th Gwangju Pro-Democracy Movement. But still, many of the details of what happened are not clearly known, including who first gave the order to open fire on civilians. And that has been causing conflicts and disputes to this day.
There are suspicions that the state power at the time was deeply involved in slaughtering civilians and violating human rights.
On March 13th last year, the Special Act to identify the truth of the May 18th Democratization Movement was enacted, with the aim of identifying distorted or concealed truths from that time.
The special law focuses on 4 areas: the civilian massacre by the military forces, responsibility for the initial order to fire, the suspicion that the military fired at civilians from a helicopter, and North Korean military involvement.
Despite the multiple confirmations from the government that the May 18th Movement was a democratic movement, some, including former President Chun Doo-hwan, still argue the involvement of the North Korean military.
The Defense Ministry staged a special investigation and confirmed in February last year the use of military helicopters to fire at civilians.
But at the court hearing on Monday, Chun denied all the allegations.
"If he says anything different, probably he would be overturning his position of several decades. If the trial continues, his defense attorney might convince him that in order to get a lenient ruling. I think any kind of statement that comes from his mouth about the incident probalbly would be very prebaricated or vague as to whether he would concede that he was the one who made the order or was aware of it."
The process of establishing a truth investigation committee is still underway with a few steps left in the National Assembly, but the government is trying to move forward with the issue as resolving remaining issues is one of the top priorities of the current government.
Lee Min-sun, Arirang News.
39 years have passed since the pro-democracy movement,... but there are still some disputes over what exactly happened in Gwangju.
Today’s court hearing could have provided meaningful evidence to resolve some of those issues.
Lee Min-sun explains further.
It's been 39 years since the May 18th Gwangju Pro-Democracy Movement. But still, many of the details of what happened are not clearly known, including who first gave the order to open fire on civilians. And that has been causing conflicts and disputes to this day.
There are suspicions that the state power at the time was deeply involved in slaughtering civilians and violating human rights.
On March 13th last year, the Special Act to identify the truth of the May 18th Democratization Movement was enacted, with the aim of identifying distorted or concealed truths from that time.
The special law focuses on 4 areas: the civilian massacre by the military forces, responsibility for the initial order to fire, the suspicion that the military fired at civilians from a helicopter, and North Korean military involvement.
Despite the multiple confirmations from the government that the May 18th Movement was a democratic movement, some, including former President Chun Doo-hwan, still argue the involvement of the North Korean military.
The Defense Ministry staged a special investigation and confirmed in February last year the use of military helicopters to fire at civilians.
But at the court hearing on Monday, Chun denied all the allegations.
"If he says anything different, probably he would be overturning his position of several decades. If the trial continues, his defense attorney might convince him that in order to get a lenient ruling. I think any kind of statement that comes from his mouth about the incident probalbly would be very prebaricated or vague as to whether he would concede that he was the one who made the order or was aware of it."
The process of establishing a truth investigation committee is still underway with a few steps left in the National Assembly, but the government is trying to move forward with the issue as resolving remaining issues is one of the top priorities of the current government.
Lee Min-sun, Arirang News.