By John Catalinotto

New York

Fifty years of enforced silence were broken on June 23 when Korean victims of U.S. war crimes finally had the chance to tell an International War Crimes Tribunal about what had happened to them.

Some 600 people attended the historic gathering at the Interchurch Center of Riverside Church. Large delegations of Koreans came from South Korea, Japan, Canada and Germany, as well as from all over the U.S. Most evidence was presented in Korean and English to the multinational audience.

The U.S. State Department had refused visas to a delegation of 11 lawyers bringing evidence from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The South Korean government had barred some witnesses from boarding planes to the U.S., sparking protests in Seoul.

Tribunal organizers saw this as proof that both Washington and Seoul fear the impact of the truth about the U.S.'s colonial relationship with Korea.

The testimony of victims from North Korea was presented via videotape.

Listening intently to the evidence were over two dozen jurists from 17 countries. Twelve of these countries participated in the 1950-1953 war against Korea. After four sessions of deliberating over the testimony, this jury unanimously found the U.S. government and military guilty of 19 counts of war crimes committed against Korea from 1945 until 2001.

Korea Truth Commission formed after No Gun Ri exposé

The tribunal was the culmination of over a year's work by the Korea Truth Commission, which had been formed after the exposure of U.S. atrocities against Korean civilians at No Gun Ri during the Korean War.

The KTC enlisted the aid in the U.S. of the International Action Center and Veterans for Peace, and the cooperation of many other organizations internationally. Yoomi Jeong of the KTC and Sara Flounders of the IAC co-chaired the tribunal.

Former South Korean Supreme Court Justice Byun Jung Soo and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark--who drafted the original indictment against the U.S. at the KTC request--were the chief prosecutors.

Opening the prosecution, Byun noted that "U.S. crimes have been suppressed and covered up" and should be revealed in detail. People from North and South Korea have come together in the tribunal movement, he said. They hope the tribunal work will serve as an example for those who want the reunification of the two Koreas.

Clark pointed out that the U.S. military went into Korea in September 1945 to "stop Soviet troops and they divided the Korean people in half, putting into power a military government in the south that used brutal means to eliminate every form of sympathy with Koreans in the north."

When war broke out in 1950, the U.S. declared North Korea "Indian Territory," Clark said. This was a racist term meaning a free-fire zone. The invading troops killed 3.5 million civilians in three years. Washington has kept up the "torture of economic sanctions" since.

Clark explained the KTC's decision to focus not only on the U.S. slaughter of civilians during the 1950-1953 Korean War, but also on the periods that preceded and followed it: first, the repression and murder of leftists from 1945 to 1950, and later the U.S. occupation of the south and economic sanctions against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the north following the 1953 truce.

1945-1950: Crimes against peace

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, legal representative of the Partnership for Civil Justice in Washington, presented the prosecution's brief for the 1945 to 1950 period. She instructed the jury that during this period the U.S. committed "crimes against peace," which were defined at Nuremberg as the most serious of all war crimes.

As an example of the political persecution and outright slaughter by the U.S.-backed military regime in the south during this period, the tribunal heard the testimony of witness Lee Do Young regarding the massacre of a quarter of the population of Cheju Island after an uprising in the spring of 1948. The island lies off the southern coast of the Korean peninsula.

Lee said he was still frightened that the regime might punish him for presenting his testimony. Indeed, Seoul stopped some of the Cheju witnesses from coming to the tribunal.

Lee's own father, who had worked for the rural government, was killed later, in August 1950, for alleged participation in the uprising on the island. His story brought up an additional aspect--the U.S.-backed slaughter of hundreds of thousands of leftists and activists in South Korea in the summer of 1950.

Lee said he found one person who confessed to executing his father, but that person's superior officer denied it.

War crimes in South Korea

Prosecutor Shim Jae Hwan spoke on behalf of those Koreans killed by the U.S. military in South Korea. "The U.S. brought in massive military force and killed innocent people, brutalized women, young and old," Shim said. "The U.S. must admit its crimes, apologize for them and compensate the Korean people."

A half-dozen witnesses from South Korea then came forward to describe U.S. atrocities. Their stories, which they had been unable to tell for 50 years, caused many in the audience to weep. Any criticism of the U.S. was interpreted as sympathy with the DPRK and was punishable under the National Security Law, so they had had to swallow their suffering in silence.

One witness told of a pond near his home village. When drained, it yielded five truckloads of bodies. Outside the auditorium were exhibits showing the location and details of this and other atrocities. He said that some 3,500 people were killed in his area.

Kang Soo Jo, who had been a young girl when she lost her mother to the war, told of being shot in the leg. She showed her mangled leg and foot to the audience. In fury she demanded the U.S. either "return things to the way they were before or give compensation for my suffering."

A man from a northern province of South Korea told of being bombed non-stop by U.S. B-29s. "We raised South Korean flags to say hello, but were surprised by bombs. I lost my mother and father. Fifty-nine people were killed in that attack," he said, out of 450 people killed altogether in the village and environs.

U.S. officials claimed what happened was an error, he said, but then bombed again for 40 minutes a few days later.

An "error," was made, another survivor said, when U.S. planes bombed and machine-gunned a boat carrying refugees and flying the South Korean flag. Some "150 people were killed in the bombing. Others were shot on the stairwell trying to leave the boat."

That U.S. commanders considered these to be "errors" only means that the attacks were meant for civilians who might be sympathetic to the north. Either way, attacks on civilians are war crimes.

War crimes in North Korea

Attorney Lennox Hinds, the permanent representative to the United Nations of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, led the prosecution's presentation on civilian massacres in the north. He also raised the U.S. use of biological and chemical warfare.

Hinds introduced into evidence a study made in 1952 by an eight-member delegation from his organization at the invitation of the DPRK. This IADL study showed evidence of mass murders, massacres and other atrocities that violated Article 16 and Article 6A of the Nuremburg Laws, said Hinds.

It also showed that the U.S. used weapons banned by the articles of war, including bacteriological and chemical weapons. U.S. planes had dropped canisters containing flies and other insects infected with plague, cholera and other epidemic diseases. A letter was then read to the tribunal from Stephen Endicott, whose research into declassified documents appears in the book "The United States and Biological Warfare: Secrets from the Early Cold War and Korea."

Expert witness Anne Katrin-Becker of Germany told of U.S.-led massacres that killed one-fourth of the population of Sinchon province--35,383 people--mostly elderly people, non-combatant women and children. In October 1950, U.S. troops forced 900 people into a building and burned it to death, and in another area 1,000 women were drowned.

In a video the KTC made earlier this spring in North Korea, survivors testified of U.S. atrocities carried out against their villages and loved ones. The crimes were similar to those in the south, but with no pretense of "error."

Former U.S. bomber pilot Charles Overby confessed to his own role in dropping 40 bombs each run, each with 500 pounds of TNT, on the population of North Korea.

1953-2001: Crimes against humanity

The fourth prosecutor, Kim Seung Kyo, addressed crimes against humanity committed from 1953 to 2001, including political repression, military dictatorship, U.S. troop occupation, the infamous National Security Law that led to charges against a million South Koreans, the torture of political prisoners, the massacre after the 1980 Kwangju uprising, and U.S. Air Force bombing practice at Maehyang-ri.

Ismael Guadalupe of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques testified on the U.S. Navy's use of his island as a bombing practice range and expressed his solidarity with the Koreans at Maehyang-ri. The work of the tribunal has furthered Korean-Puerto Rican solidarity.

Other presentations included IAC West Coast coordinator Gloria La Riva on the struggle of the Daewoo workers, Sandra Smith from Canada on the deprivations caused by sanctions, and former German Admiral Elmar Schmaehling on U.S. plans for a National Missile Defense.

The tribunal showed cooperation between North and South Korean organizations, as well as solidarity of the U.S. anti-war movement with the Korean Truth Commission, which is rooted in mass organizations in South Korea.

KTC Secretary General Rev. Kiyul Chung, Brian Willson of Veterans for Peace and Brian Becker of the IAC ended the presentations with political analyses of the tribunal and a call for continued activity by all the participants to help get U.S. troops out of Korea and allow the Koreans to reunify their country.

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