It is the 25th anniversary of the Gwangju Struggle. It has also already been many years since the struggle has been given its proper place as part of the democracy movement and those involved have had their honor restored. There is still much to be done, however. One thing that needs to be resolved is the perverted situation in which those who were responsible for the bloody armed suppression of the struggle have yet to have the medals they received for their work canceled and revoked. Needless to say none among them have returned their medals voluntarily. True reconciliation remains far off.
The government says it has not revoked their medals because the Special Law on the May 18th Democracy Campaign allows the government to take awards and medals given specifically for actions against the campaign but that the medals given were given for a combination of reasons, and because it would be difficult to revoke medals given to subordinates without first doing so with leaders Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo. However, the view of the experts is that revoking the medals at issue would be entirely possible under the laws pertaining to the giving of such citations. The reason the situation has come to this is because the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs are passing the buck while each waits for the other to take action.
In an effort to do something 23 members of the ruling and opposition parties have submitted a proposal to amend the law on awards and citations. The revision would be about making it clear who is responsible for taking action and on what kind of timetable, by requiring the Government Administration and Home Affairs Minister to submit to the cabinet for review all cases where there has occurred reason for cancelation. That is a welcome move as it improves what is an ambiguous legal stipulation. The politicians need to stop just talking about facing issues of recent history and demonstrate that they can put their words into practice by passing that amendment.
That is not all that remains to be done about the May 18th Struggle. There are many questions to be answered, such as where the remains of more of the missing are, who was responsible for initiating the shooting, the dualization of command authority, and that of US involvement relating to its operational authority over the unit that was responsible. The full truth behind what happened must first be known in order to resolve those questions. That is why the "May 18th Democratic Campaign" must be included in the inquiry into unanswered issues of the military's past. We must not avoid the road to relieving the pain of the victims and true reconciliation.
The Hankyoreh, 18 May 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Revoke Medals for Those Involved at Gwangju |
