STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- From: "David Roberts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "5 Live" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Fw: [IAC] Report from North Korea: Testimony on U.S. war crimes Date: Fri, Jun 8, 2001, 5:40 pm Sent: 08 June 2001 17:36 Subject: FW: [IAC] Report from North Korea: Testimony on U.S. war crimes > These are the "paragons of virtue" telling other governments what > to do and how to do it!!!! [And sitting in judgement on them!!!!] > DR > > Subject: [IAC] Report from North Korea: Testimony on U.S. > war crimes > IN NORTH KOREA: > Witnesses testify on U.S. crimes in 1950-53 war > > By Brian Becker, Co-Director, International Action Center > Pyongyang, DPRK > > Becker is a co-director of the International Action Center > and the co-coordina tor of the upcoming Korea Truth > Commission War Crimes Tribunal that will be held June 23 at > the Interchurch Center, 475 Riverside Drive, in New York. He > was in Korea in May with the Commission. > > It was exactly 48 years ago--on May 19,, 1953--that the U.S. > Joint Chiefs of Staff decided to strike this city with > nuclear weapons. > > The United States Air Force had already leveled all of North > Korea with three years of carpet bombing. No building or > structure above one story still existed above the 38th > parallel on the Korean Peninsula. > > Nearly 3 million North Korean civilians had already perished > from war-related causes by mid-1953. (Encyclopedia > Britannica 1967) > > "It is the view of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," Gen. Omar > Bradley wrote to President Dwight Eisenhower on May 19, > 1953, "that the necessary air, naval, and ground operations, > including the extensive strategic and tactical use of atomic > bombs, be undertaken, so as to obtain maximum surprise and > maximum impact on the enemy, both militarily and > psychologically." [WW emphasis] > > The next day at a meeting of the National Security Council, > Eisenhower approved the plan to dramatically escalate the > Korean War. He even helped select certain target areas for > the nuclear strikes. > > Previously declassified top secret documents reveal just how > close the United States came to using nuclear bombs in > Korea--just a few years after it destroyed two Japanese > cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in 1945. > > These documents are reported in "To Win a Nuclear War--The > Pentagon's Secret War Plans," by Michio Kaku and Daniel > Axelrod, published by South End Press in 1987. > > BEHIND THE NUCLEAR STRATEGY > > The nuclear option had been raised early in the war. The > main reservation cited by the war planners was the > Pentagon's worry about reducing its nuclear stockpile in > Europe. By 1953, however, the U.S. arsenal had greatly > expanded. > > Why did the U.S. brass and president decide to use nuclear > weapons in mid-1953--a military action that would likely > kill hundreds of thousands of civilians? > > The military conflict that started on June 25, 1950, had > stalled into a war of attrition. The Korean People's Army > aided by the People's Liberation Army of China had smashed > the advance of the United States/United Nations military > into North Korea in the late autumn of 1950. > > The military stalemate dragged on for another 30 months. The > United States could not prevail. The operation seemed > hopelessly bogged down. > > The United States had by then given up its dream of > conquering North Korea. Washington wanted an armistice > agreement. The Pentagon was increasingly frustrated with the > delay in negotiations. > > Before the United States resorted to massive atomic warfare > in 1953, however, there was a sudden warming in > negotiations. While the Pentagon secretly prepared for > nuclear escalation, the Chinese unexpectedly agreed to a > large prisoner exchange that led to a reduction in tension. > > Within a few months an armistice agreement led to a > conclusion of the military conflict. The nuclear holocaust > was narrowly averted. > > But U.S. civilian and military leaders had agreed to > extensive use of nuclear weapons against the people of North > Korea. This shows that they lacked even the slightest moral > qualm about carrying out mass murder against civilian > populations. > > Moral queasiness was never a factor. From the beginning of > the war the U.S. effort was predicated on a strategy of mass > murder. > > Frustrated by the determination of the Korean people and > their Chinese allies, the Pentagon implemented a policy of > deliberate slaughter from the air and on the ground starting > in June 1950. > > KOREA TRUTH COMMISSION INVESTIGATING TEAM > > A delegation of the Korea Truth Commission that included > Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general, and the Rev. > KiYul Chung toured both North and South Korea May 15-21. The > delegation met with hundreds of survivors of civilian > massacres in both parts of Korea. > > The delegation visited and met with survivors of U.S. > atrocities in Sinchon County in North Korea. Sinchon was > considered a communist stronghold when U.S. troops occupied > the town in September 1950. > > Before a North Korean and Chinese counter-offensive drove > them out in early December 1950, the occupying troops killed > 35,383 people. > > That was one of every four of the county's 140,000 > inhabitants. > > A museum carefully chronicles the U.S. crimes in Sinchon: > 5,484 dwellings burned; 618 factories, public buildings and > irrigation facilities destroyed, peasant leaders executed. > > In one act of savage revenge, retreating U.S. troops, being > mauled by the KPA and Chinese counter-offensive, murdered > 900 civilians in an air-raid shelter. U.S. troops poured > gasoline into the shelter's ventilation hole and ignited it. > > The Korea Truth Commission delegation also interviewed > survivors in Wonam-ri in North Korea. They were among the > few who lived through the massacre of 502 women and their > children who were locked in two storehouses that were > similarly torched in December 1950. > > During its five-day stay in the Democratic People's Republic > of Korea, the KTC delegation reviewed historical documents, > scientific reports and archival papers and interviewed > eyewitnesses and survivors of U.S. war crimes. In North > Korea they also examined archival material that was > "liberated" from U.S. military offices by the Korean > People's Army in the first days of the war, when the North > Korean army quickly swept through Seoul and most of South > Korea. > > These "liberated" documents reveal the extent of the U.S. > military command's control over the South Korean military > between 1945 and 1948. That is the period when over 300,000 > communists, socialists and anti-imperialist nationalists > were executed by the Sygman Rhee regime. > > NORTH KOREAN SURVIVORS COME FORWARD > > The delegation took the testimony of individual North > Koreans, now between the ages of 58 and 76, who gave > personal accounts of the U.S. air war, use of > bacteriological and germ-warfare weapons, and other examples > showing there were civilian victims of unprovoked military > assaults by U.S. troops. > > RiOk Hu, a 57-year-old retired teacher, broke into tears > when she recalled how U.S. troops shot off one of her arms > below the elbow when, at age 7, she failed to obey their > command to remain in a hut in her village. > > "We had been hiding from the U.S. troops when they came into > our village but after three days we were so hungry my mother > sent me back to look for food," she recounted. When she saw > U.S. troops approaching her as she returned to her home, she > was frightened and ran into a hut. But the soldiers came in > right behind her. > > "I was frightened and tried to leave. They yelled at me to > stop but I couldn't understand them. I raised my right hand > to open the door. The soldier fired and blew my arm to > pieces. Instinctively, I grabbed the door with my left hand > and he fired again." > > > RiOk Hu has lived the next 50 years without arms. She is > scheduled to testify, along with others from North and South > Korea, on June 23 at the War Crimes Tribunal sponsored by > the Korea Truth Commission, taking place at the Interchurch > Center in New York. > > GERM WARFARE FROM THE AIR > > Other survivors told stories of their families being wiped > out by the systematic three-year-long air war against North > Korea. U.S. pilots routinely complained that there were no > more available targets because the air war against the north > was so extensive. > > Chang Kwan Hee, a 62-year-old medical doctor, told how her > family and neighbors had been devastated by disease that she > asserted was the byproduct of germ-warfare weapons dropped > in north Pyung-ahn province. Two of her brothers died from > burns suffered from napalm attacks. > > The U.S. military used 20 times as much napalm in Korea as > it had used in World War II. > > The KTC delegation made special efforts to investigate the > assertions that the United States used germ and > bacteriological weapons in North Korea. The commission is > re-publishing an extensive collection of documents produced > in the early 1950s by Chinese and Korean scientific > commissions on the use of weapons that carried cholera and > anthrax. > > Speaking at a May 19 news conference in the Koryo Hotel in > Pyongyang, Ramsey Clark said, "The crimes committed by the > U.S. against the Korean people included mass executions of > political prisoners in South Korea between September 8, > 1945, and the start of the Korean War on June 25, 1950." > > Referring to recent revelations that former U.S. Sen. Bob > Kerrey and a Navy SEALS unit he commanded carried out a > massacre of South Vietnamese women and children in 1969, > Clark said, "The Korean people, like the Vietnamese people, > also suffered from countless massacres between 1950 and 1953 > by U.S. occupying troops." > > SANCTIONS ARE CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY > > Clark told the media that continued U.S. economic sanctions > on North Korea constitute a crime against humanity. > > Socialist North Korea had been a food exporter until 1989. > Its people enjoyed full employment, free universal health > care, virtually free housing, and free education. > > But with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union and the > demise of its other trading partners in Eastern Europe, the > North Korean economy sharply contracted. At the same time > the country experienced a decade of drought and severe > floods. > > Under these difficult conditions, the economic blockade and > sanctions against North Korean have taken a deep toll on the > population. Recent reports by North Korean officials > indicate that infant mortality has skyrocketed. Average life > expectancy plummeted from 73.2 years in 1993 to 66.8 in > 1999. > > The mortality rate for children under 5 rose during the same > years from 27 deaths per 1,000 to 48. > > "Economic sanctions, as we have seen in the last decade in > Iraq and in North Korea, can be even more devastating to the > civilian population than outright war," Clark told the > reporters at the May 19 news conference. "Our tribunal in > New York will hold the U.S. accountable for using food and > medicine as a weapon against North Korea. And we will prove > that the occupation of South Korea by 37,000 U.S. troops to > this day violates the fundamental rights of the Korean > people. No people can be free when a large contingent of > foreign troops occupies their soil." > > ------------------ > Send replies to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > This is the IAC activist announcement > list. 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