------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Jan. 25, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- WAR CRIMES IN KORA: U.S. ADMITS NO GUN RI MASSACRE By Deirdre Griswold The U.S. government has finally, after half a century, admitted that its soldiers killed innocent civilians in the south Korean township of No Gun Ri shortly after the start of the Korean War in 1950. President Bill Clinton himself expressed "deep regret" in a public statement on Jan. 11. But in making an official investigation and report on the incident, the Pentagon did everything it could to shield its officers from questioning and blame. It refused to allow the south Korean Ministry of Defense, which was also conducting an investigation, to question any U.S. military personnel. And, by refusing to "quantify" the number of Koreans killed at No Gun Ri, it tried to downplay this massacre. Survivors say the killing began when U.S. planes strafed refugees who were fleeing an area of heavy fighting. About 100 people were killed this way. The large column of refugees, wearing white so they could be distinguished from combatants, then sought shelter at a railroad overpass. Over a three-day period, U.S. troops with machine guns killed another 300 of these unarmed civilians, survivors told reporters from the Associated Press, who broke the story in the fall of 1999. The Pentagon report refuses to give a number. Lt. Gen. Michael Ackerman, the Army inspector general, claimed at a press conference that his investigation turned up no evidence of any orders to fire on civilians. But this was contradicted by the Associated Press, which in a Jan. 12 article said that about 20 ex-GIs it had interviewed "recalled orders to shoot." The article continued: "The AP also found wartime documents showing at least three high-level Army headquarters and an Air Force command ordered troops to treat as hostile any civilians approaching U.S. positions. At the time, U.S. forces were in retreat, and thousands of refugees fled for their safety as the North Korean army advanced south. "Two days before the No Gun Ri incident, the 8th Cavalry Regiment communications log instructed: 'No refugees to cross the front line. Fire everyone trying to cross lines.' " While the U.S. government pretended to have invaded Korea to aid the people in the south, this massacre confirms that the war itself was a racist and imperialist atrocity in which the U.S. commanders regarded all Koreans as potential enemies. A growing movement in Korea is exposing U.S. atrocities and war crimes and demanding that the tens of thousands of soldiers still based there go home. - END - (Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
