For decades, Lee Tae-joon has wondered what became of his cousin, his childhood companion, who disappeared without trace at the start of the Korean War.
Now he thinks he knows the answer.
At an abandoned cobalt mine near the South Korean city of Daegu, evidence of a massacre is being slowly uncovered.
With brushes and trowels, working ankle-deep in water, a team of archaeologists is sweeping away the top-soil to reveal a mass of human bones.
It is thought that this cold tomb contains the bodies of up to 3,000 people who were executed and then thrown into a vertical mine shaft.
Mr Lee believes his cousin was one of them.
“My heart really breaks when I think that all this killing took place without any judicial process, and by our own forces,” he said.
‘Hostility and hatred’
At the outbreak of the Korean War, his cousin, like many thousands of suspected Communist sympathisers, was rounded up by the South Korean police.
That large numbers of these political prisoners were shot to stop them joining troops advancing from the north is the grim truth now being pulled from the country’s soil.
It has taken this long to unearth because, for much of the post-war period, South Korea’s military dictatorships made this kind of investigation impossible.
The families of those who disappeared suffered in silence.
“It was very difficult,” Mr Lee said. “After the war, even the slightest suggestion that your family had leftist sympathies would leave you open to hostility and hatred.”
In 2005, South Korea finally established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Its 240 staff have interviewed hundreds of witnesses and relatives of the victims.
Last year, they started digging. Just a handful of 160 suspected mass-grave sites have been uncovered so far.
In total, they are estimated to contain the remains of more than 100,000 civilian prisoners and suspected leftists.
And there is strong evidence to suggest that the 1950 summer of slaughter took place in the full view of South Korea’s American allies.
‘Internal matter’
Photos of the executions, taken by US soldiers, were stamped “secret” and filed away in Washington for years.
Their eyewitness accounts were passed to the top of the chain of command.
“There is proof that it was reported to the very top,” said Kim Dong-choon, of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. “US soldiers took pictures and reported back to their superiors.”
News reports have suggested that the Americans saw it as an “internal matter”.
The British, though, did take some action, seizing “Execution Hill”, outside Seoul, to prevent further killings.
But 82-year-old Kim Man-sik, one of the few South Koreans left alive who admits to having taken part in the executions, pleads for a fuller understanding of the circumstances of war.
In the midst of a civil conflict, with the front line just a few miles away, he says the military policemen under his command felt they had little choice but to follow orders.
“On two occasions my unit was told to collect suspected leftists from the police, and we conducted group executions,” he said.
“But you have to understand the situation at the time, our forces were in a very disadvantaged situation and cornered.”
Weak mandate
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has until 2010 to complete its task.
An uncomfortable truth has been airbrushed from the history of the Korean War, which has long attributed almost all atrocities to the communists in the North.
More than half a century on, it is a new generation in the South that are coming to terms with the thought that in war terrible deeds are not only the preserve of the enemy.
But the commission cannot compel witnesses to give evidence, nor can it impose any sanctions on the perpetrators.
There is concern amongst its supporters that its mandate is too short, and its powers too weak, to do justice to its cause.
By John Sudworth
BBC News, Daegu, South Korea
Source: BBC
Construction is underway, now that the vendors have been forced out. The city is revitalizing the street to include a street museum, a traditional-style stage, and revamped fountain, in addition to tiling of the street. Developments are expected to last until January.
Source:Imaeil
Daegu police have been on a crackdown fenzy this year and have investigated as many as 278 adult game rooms. As gambling is illegal, the game rooms are technically legally, as the slot machines only spit out tokens. The problem with police is that most of these game rooms have a money changer in the back who changes the tokens for cash. Amongst the game rooms investigated, police have busted 136 money changers and a total of 717 customers and owners involved in gambling.
9 people involved in a noraebang doumi racket have been busted in Gyesan-dong, just west of downtown Daegu. In noraebang culture, it’s not uncommon for customers to order ’singing assistants’ (aka ‘doumi’ 도우미) to accompany them in their room. Many noraebangs oblige with these requests and call up the requisite service. You may often see these service providers whizzing around town in cars and pulling up in front of noraebangs and dropping off or picking up girls. Although many of these assistants are there just for a few bucks to give legit singing and drinking assistance, some go ‘all the way’, charging fees up to 200,000 won. Needless to say, it’s a controversial subculture, particularly for the fact that its not just struggling college girls being employed, but often housewives or teenage girls passing for being of age. Male doumis are also employed for female customers who go to singing establishments. Doumi culture tends to get a blind-eye from the police for the most part, but police are always trying to monitor the prostitution element that often lurks amongst the blaring noise, bright lights, and drunken crooning.
The wife of an Army captain accused of killing her had a stormy relationship with him, considered him “boring,” and was keeping up a round of extra-marital affairs in the period leading up to her death, according to testimony Monday at a pretrial hearing in the case.
Capt. Christopher Gray is charged in the death of Lea Gray, 27, whose badly decomposed body was found in a fetal position May 9 in an area of bushes just a few feet from a roadside in Waegwan.
She was fully clothed and tests showed no evidence of sexual assault.
The pretrial hearing, known as an Article 32 proceeding, opened Monday at Camp Henry and was to resume Tuesday. It will be up to the hearing officer to recommend whether the evidence warrants moving the case to trial.
According to Monday’s testimony, Lea Gray died from a chemical called diphenhydramine, an antihistamine which was found in her body at a toxic level. A second substance, acetaminophen, also was present at a toxic level.
Medical examiners found no evidence of bruises, knife or gunshot wounds, or any other trauma, according to testimony. She was identified through dental records.
“Based on the lack of trauma and diphenhydramine level … we determined that she died from diphenhydramine intoxication,” Air Force Col. Abubakr A. Marzouk testified by telephone. Marzouk is deputy medical examiner with the Armed Forces Medical Examiner at Rockville, Md.
Prosecution witnesses detailed the various investigative tracks they pursued in the case, including a check of what purchases Christopher Gray made at the Camp Walker post exchange; footage from South Korean highway and toll gate cameras and a camera in the elevator of the couple’s Camp George residence, and a search of Gray’s computers.
His alleged purchases April 8 included boxes of medication, including one that induces sleep; duct tape, latex gloves, an enema kit, a boning knife, solid moss green kitchen towels, a blue plastic tarp, and “lawn and leaf” bags.
An Army Criminal Investigation Command agent testified that a search of Christopher Gray’s computers turned up various key words that had been typed into a search engine several days before those purchases, including: “how to tie up a person without leaving marks”; “over the counter suicide drugs”; “self-induced asphyxiation”; “accidental death”; “identifying body parts”; “soluble pills”; and “woman charged with killing husband with enema.”"
Prosecution witnesses testified that an elevator camera showed Christopher Gray getting on at the fifth floor — where the couple lived — and carrying a large suitcase, at the time authorities believe she disappeared. During the same critical period, road cameras at several points along the Daegu-Waegwan highway system recorded Christopher Gray’s vehicle on the road late at night, according to testimony.
Under cross-examination by chief defense lawyer Richard V. Stevens, a civilian attorney of Colorado Springs, Colo., an Army investigator acknowledged that agents had not read Gray his rights on the day they questioned him.
Stevens said he would make that an issue at a future point in the case.
In the course of his cross-examination of witnesses, Stevens said Lea Gray had been having extra-marital affairs with several men, one of them allegedly a sergeant first class.
Among Lea Gray’s cell phones was one that she used exclusively for calling other men, according to testimony.
A woman who had been a close friend of Lea Gray’s testified that Gray had complained that her husband was “boring.” The couple were in continual conflict, the woman testified, and were attending counseling sessions daily.
The hearing is going forward before Marine Maj. Steven Keane, of the 8th U.S. Army staff judge advocate’s office.
Source: Stars and Stripes
As previously reported, Daegu is rolling out plans to overhaul Dongseongno and enhancing its stature as the center of the city. But the fallout is all the pissed off street vendors who need to pack up and peddle their wares elsewhere, while the city rolls in with its forklifts and excavators.
The Jung-gu Office has provided alternate locations for them to set up shop, but that obviously was not good enough for the hardcore vendors on that prime stretch of concrete, where even some of the smaller vendors are suspected to rake in excess of 5 million won a month and the busy food kiosks around Burger King can gross over 10-20 million in monthly sales, which is no wonder as to why they chose to protest to the bitter end, before having to be cleared out by police. The irony of all this is that the vast majority of street vendors are operating illegally to begin with and its not uncommon to see police tearing down illegal tents and kiosks in other parts of the city. The difference with downtown is that given the high revenues, the vendors here could afford ‘protection’ and enough heads to look the other way. But obviously in this case, one can only sell so much odeng and ddeokbokki to compete with the coffers of government.
The following is an editorial on the local scandal, sourced from Daegu Shinmun, translated by Aesook Shin and proofed/edited by Craig White:
Recent allegations that a medical professor has sexually assaulted female interns at an unnamed Daegu university hospital, has shamed local citizens again. Dozens of people have filed a public appeal. It has been going on since last year, which should be punished accordingly, if proven true.
The center of this allegation is a gynecologist, which casts further concern amongst the public, as one can imagine that he was regularly seeing female patients, which reminds Koreans of a scandal last year in Tongyeong, Gyeongnam Province, where a physician raped his female patients after overdosing them with anesthesia during endoscopies.
In the current case, the professor had intentionally tried to touch the interns while drinking and uttering sexually provocative words. 8 interns and residents are the victims, one of which is now getting therapy.
This whole charge emerged to the surface during an interview by The Korea Intern Resident Association on Aug.4. He had allegedly made close physical contact with all of the female doctors at the drinking table, and tried to hug and play kissing games with them.
However, the professor says ” My gestures only went to the extent to that of foreigners when they greet and not too close to the body or anything. It was very casual, slightly touching the arms and the shoulders.”
The Disciplinary Committee of the university has investigated and concluded on this issue but is delaying its official announcement. The Korea Intern Resident Association has confirmed a lot of the truth in this allegation and is going to proceed with prosecution.
Sexual harassment, just like sexual violence, should be eliminated. The truth should be disclosed and all should be reminded of civil behavior in our society.
The number of local foreign residents in Daegu has risen to over 22,800 people or roughly 0.92 percent of the general population. According to statistical research done over the last month, foreign men amount to 12,650 people, and 10,172 are females. When compared to the previous year, the overall number increased by 2,091 people (10.1 percent), growing at a net monthly average of 174..
The totals consist of foreign industrial workers (8,955 people or 39.3 percent); 4,436 (19.5 percent) are married; 2,699 (11.9 percent) are students; and children amount to 2,255 (9.9 percent)
Focusing on the nationalities, 10,551 people (46.2 percent) are Korean-ethnic Chinese, Southeast Asians, including Vietnam, Philippines, amount to 6,707 people (29.4 percent), Nepalese and other South Asians total 1,491 people (6.5 percent), 1,133 (5.0%) are Taiwanese, 802 (3.5 percent) are Americans, and 502 (2.2 percent) are Japanese.
7,741 (33.9 percent) of foreigners live around Seongseo Industrial Complex, 4,434 (19.4 percent) live in northern Daegu, 2,830 (12.4 percent) in industrial complex-friendly Dalseong-gun in the west, and the rest are spread out throughout the city.
These numbers obviously don’t reflect all the GIs who work on SOFA-status visas nor the migrant workers and teachers here on tourist visas.
The Prosecutors’ office created a stir when an investigation of a local police executive, under suspicion of running an illegal video gambling room, expanded to include other police staff.
Daegu’s Prosecutors’ Drugs and Special Crimes Division is investigating a police chief officer and other staff who are under suspicion of protecting a superintendent (referred to as Manager A) of a police station in Daegu. Manager A was arrested for allegedly running a video gambling room.
The other staff members are being investigated for possibly trading money with Manager A by using bank accounts with false names. Judiciary proceedings will occur this week to continue the investigation. Recent findings by the Prosecutors’ office show that hundreds of millions of Won were transferred between the two staff members and Manager A between 2003 and 2006. The prosecutor believes that this money could have been used for bribery. Further investigation is needed to discover the extent of the money’s uses.
Prosecutors have found that one staff member has received tens of millions in payment from the arrested Manager A. There is a high possibility that at the same police station where the superintendent worked, the administration division took unlawful payments while Manager A was in active service.
Another aspect of the investigation involves a relative of a retired chief police officer. The relative has allegedly had an affair with Manager A. The Prosecutors’ office has asked for the retired chief police officer’s disciplinary records from Daegu District Police Office on this matter. The prosecutors are concerned that the police administration did not submit the retired chief police officer’s records from their office into the National Police Department.
Source article: Kuki News
Translated by 김진희
Proofread and edited by Sarah Emory
SEOUL — An 18th Medical Logistics Battalion soldier was recognized Wednesday for actions that might have saved the life of a Korean truck driver. Staff Sgt. Mitchell Calhoun was driving from Waegwon to Daegu on Sunday when he saw 31-year-old Lee Young-han thrown from his truck after it spun out of control on rain-soaked Highway 4.
Calhoun, who had recently completed expert field medical badge training, stopped his car to help.
Seeing Lee had a head injury, Calhoun went to his car to get an emergency trauma dressing. When he got back with the dressing, Lee had stopped breathing, and he no longer had a pulse.
Calhoun’s training kicked in.
“About the second set of chest compressions he started gasping for breath real hard and started breathing,” Calhoun said.
Calhoun stayed with Lee until an ambulance arrived, briefed rescuers on the extent of Lee’s injuries, then helped police direct traffic until the wreckage could be moved.
A laboratory technician, Calhoun said he helped with trauma care at a clinic in Iraq, but never expected to render emergency care outside of a combat situation. “This is different for me because it was so unexpected,” he said. “[In Iraq] we knew what to expect and we had facilities and equipment set up.”
Police presented Calhoun with a watch and a certificate during Wednesday’s ceremony at the Chilgok police station.
Heo Won-seok, a senior police officer with the Chilgok Police Department, said Calhoun’s actions were not only selfless, but also uncommon. “Other Korean drivers are busy going on their way after seeing the accidents, some are even cursing the injured because they would further add to the traffic congestions.”
After the ceremony Calhoun met with Lee’s sister, who thanked him for saving her brother’s life.
“That was pretty emotional,” Calhoun said. “Everybody in the room had a hard time holding back tears.”
According to Heo, Lee is in critical condition at Daegu Catholic Hospital. He is breathing on his own and speaking with family members, but doctors cannot guarantee he will live. He is also paralyzed from the chest down.
“He would have been dead instantly at the accident scene without the perfect emergency treatment the American soldier gave to him,” Heo said. “The soldier bought him a chance to fight for his life.”
