Pembunuhan beramai-ramai di No Gun Ri

Pembunuhan No Gun Ri ialah suatu insiden yang menyayat hati dalam sejarah peperangan dunia. Pembunuhan beramai-ramai ini telah terjadi ketika Perang Korea. Seramai 8 hingga 300 orang awam Korea Selatan yang tidak berdosa telah dibunuh dengan kejam oleh tentera Amerika Syarikat. Pembunuhan telah dilakukan oleh para askar Regimen Kavalri ke-7 Amerika Syarkat (U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment) di antara tanggal 1950-07-26 dan 1950-07-29 berdekatan perkampungan yang dikenali sebagai No Gun Ri. Insiden kekejaman tentera Amerika ini telah mendapat liputan hebat dan perhatian yang serius daripada Associated Press (sebuah syarikat akhbar terkenal Amerika Syarikat). Rencana pendedahan ini telah dikeluarkan secara bersiri pada tahun 1999 dan akhirnya berjaya memenangi Hadiah Pulitzer untuk anugerah laporan penyiasatan terbaik. Perkampungan No Gun Ri terletak di Hwanggan-myeon, Kaunti Yeongdong, Chungcheongbuk-do, di pedalaman Korea Selatan.
Dalam hari-hari pertama dalam tragedi Perang Korea, kumpulan pelarian telah bergerak bebas untuk melalui jalan awam bagi aktiviti harian mereka seperti ke kebun, kedai dan sebagainya. Namun tentera Amerika Syarikat telah menahan mereka (orang awam) supaya jangan melalui kawasan tersebut kerana atas alasan tentera Amerika telah menandakan kawasan sempadan diantara laluan tentera Amerika dan penduduk awam sedangkan tiada perjanjian yang pernah dibuat untuk dipersetujui atas perkara tersebut. Pihak tentera Amerika Syarikat sengaja membina garis Amerika tanpa keizinan dari penduduk tempatan. Askar Amerika Syarikat dalam pada itu telah berperasangka buruk dengan mengesyaki bahawa kumpulan-kumpulan seperti itu (orang awam) telah disusupi oleh tentera Korea Utara, namun itu tidak benar. Walaubagaimanapun jumlah kematian yang dicatatkan akibat pembuhan kejam oleh Amerika Syarikat tidak dicatatkan secara tepat kerana sumber sebenar jumlah kematian tepat di No Gun Ri disimpan oleh pemerintah Amerika Syarikat dan tidak di khabarkan pada umum, berdasarkan laporan terkini dari New York Times. Pada tahun 1999, sebuah rencana dalam Associated Press telah menuduh tentera Amerika Syarikat telah membunuh, mengebom dan menembak para pelarian di No Gun Ri dari arah udara dan darat dengan menggunakan mesin penembak dari jarak dekat yang dibuat di bawah arahan dasar ketenteraan di Korea Selatan oleh Jabatan Ketenteraan Amerika Syarikat. Tuduhan ini amat berasas, kerana terdapat bukti yang kuat yang dapat ditentu sahihkan dalam perkara ini misalnya terdapatnya pengakuan langsung dari askar vateran Amerika Syarikat yang menganjurkan dan melakukan pembunuhan, saksi yang melihat kejadian dan mengalami sendiri tragedi dari kalangan penduduk No Gun Ri yang terselamat dari pembunuhan dan surat arahan yang dikeluarkan dari Jabatan Ketenteraan Amerika Syarikat yang masih tersimpan di Perpustakaan Washington. (berdasarkan penayangan laporan dari History (saluran TV Asia Tenggara)), namun begitu, pemerintah Amerika Syarikat di Rumah Putih terus menafikan perihal tersebut dengan mengatakan bahawa laporan AP itu sebahagiannya berdasarkan akaun langsung yang dipalsukan oleh Edward Daily. Rekod tentera Amerika Syarikat pula membuat cadangan bahawa Daily bukannya seorang penembak Machine gun dan tidak pernah datang ke No Gun Ri. Surat AP seterusnya telah membetuli kenyatan salah yang dikeluarkan oleh Daily dan apa-apa artikel berkenaan dengan insiden pembunuhan di No Gun Ri.
Pada tahun 2001, tentera AS telah memberi respon terhadap akaun AP dengan laporan yang terperinci termasuk foto udara yang diambil pada tarikh 6 Ogos 1950 dan September 19, 1950. Menurut analisis citra hawa Tentera Darat Amerika Syarikat menyimpulkan tidak ada sebarang bukti tubuh (mayat) atau perkuburan semasa, walaupun ada bukti pemberondongan dari serangan udara pada tarikh yang tak tentu di tempat berkenaan. Kerana pihak tentera Amerika memberi alasan bahawa kematian yang besar yang melibatkan ramai kematian bukan mudah untuk diurai dengan cepat, pihak tentera Amerka Syarikat dalam laporannya telah menganggarkan jumlah kematian yang berlaku dalam insiden No Gun Ri tidak lebih daripada 50 orang pelarian awam yang terbunuh. Laporan AP memberi respon bahawa tubuh badan yang selebihnya mungkin telah diletakkan di bawah jambatan dan di bawa lari oleh penduduk selepas pembunuhan yang berlaku selama 3 hari 3 malam. Surat khabar Korea Utara dalam rencananya telah melaporkan sebanyak 400 orang awam yang tidak berdosa telah dibunuh dengan sengaja oleh tentera Amerika Syarikat. Laporan akhbar ini telah dibuat selepas 3 minggu pembunuhan beramai-ramai berakhir. Laporan dari Tentera Korea Utara telah menganggarkan lebih daripada 150 orang awam telah dibunuh dengan sengaja oleh tentera Amerika Syarikat.
Berikut adalah judul buku yang bersaing dalam mengeluarkan versi fakta berkenaan insiden kekejaman di No Gun Ri:
The Bridge at No Gun Ri menegaskan bahawa dasar ketenteraan Amerika Syarikat dibenarkan menembak dengan menggunakan senjata kepada warga awam yang damai dan bebas (merupakan suatu keadaan) yang tidak menimbulkan ancaman bagi pasukan Amerika.
Pekerjaan kali kedua Major Robert Bateman, telah memenangi Anugerah Colby Colby Award pada April 2004, Robert telah membuat panggilan penegasan yakni menyangkal laporan sebuah AP yang didakwanya memutar belitkan kebenaran atas dasar bahawa, dasar ketenteraan AS adalah tidak jelas dan, dalam hal apapun, tidak diketahui askar di lapangan (medan pertempuran) pada saat kejadian di No Gun Ri. Para wartawan, pada gilirannya, menuduh Bateman sebagai "suatu kempen percubaan dalam melelahkan perihal laporan kewartawanan yang kebal yang padanya pertama dibawa kezaman kavalri ke-7 semasa pembunuhan para pelarian Korea Selatan di No Gun Ri." akaun Bateman's yang didahului pada April 2007 memerihalkan dokumen keluaran Tentera menetapkan dasar formal menembak pelarian adalah "suatu bonus tambahan" keatas tentera Amerika Syarikat.
Kini kita boleh mengetengahkan lima soalan kunci tentang penglibatan AS dalam kerja-kerja pembunuhan di No Gun Ri:
Cerita berkenaan skandal jenayah peperangan ini pada mulanya telah dibangkitkan oleh Associated Press dalam tahun 1999 dalam artikel bersiri dimana keputusan laporan telah disiasat oleh wartawan AP yang bernama Charles J. Hanley, Sang-Hun Choe, dan Martha Mendoza dan pengkaji AP yang bernama Randy Herschaft, kemudian laporan ini diperbesarkan dengan penerbitan judul buku yang bertajuk, The Bridge at No Gun Ri. Himpunan laporan AP, sebelumnya dokumen yang diwartakan oleh AP sebagai suatu keputusan yang berada di dalam permintaan Akta Kebebasan Informasi. Wartawan AP telah menemubual ramai saksi pembunuhan, termasuk rakyat Korea yang masih terselamat dan askar vateran Regimen Kavalri ke-7 Amerika Syarkat yang masih hidup.
A memo, dated July 25, 1950, from the U.S. Fifth Air Force regarding "Policy on Strafing Civilian Targets", written by USAF Colonel Turner C. Rogers recalls that, "[t]he army has requested that we strafe all civilian refugee parties that are noted approaching our positions," and that, "to date, we have complied with the army request in this respect." The memo says that bands of civilians have either been infiltrated by or are under the control of North Korean soldiers, but recommends that official policy be discriminate in targeting civilians only when "they are definitely known to contain North Korean soldiers or commit hostile acts." Though a similar naval document was located, the first official U.S. Army inquiry, in 2001, did not report turning up such a document. In April 2007, a letter from the U.S. ambassador in South Korea to the State Department in Washington acknowledging the policy order to shoot civilians was revealed by the team of Associated Press reporters .
The book by the AP reporters describes the soldiers as, "green recruits of the U.S. occupation army in Japan thrown unprepared into the frontlines of war, teenagers who viewed unarmed farmers as enemies, led by officers who had never commanded men in battle." The soldiers were wary of civilians as being potential (North) Korean People's Army (NKPA) fighters; there were reports of captured enemy fighters as well as of Russian and Japanese weapons.
No Army documents were found suggesting that an order was given to the regiment at No Gun Ri to shoot civilians, though the AP contends in The Bridge At No Gun Ri that a communications log book which would have evidence of such an order was conveniently missing from the National Archives at the time of their investigation. The AP therefore relied on the testimony of witnesses. AP reporter Martha Mendoza states:
The AP editor of the story, J. Robert Port, said he was demoted after championing the story for more than a year within the AP hierarchy. The AP special assignment division, which Port headed, was dissolved. Port resigned in June 1999. In September 1999, seventeen months after reporting on the story began, the AP published the series of stories. It is the AP's only Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.
An article in U.S. News & World Report by military reporter Joseph L. Galloway questioned the credibility of a witness in the AP report. Using the same Army records as those used by the AP, Galloway demonstrated fraudulent claims by Edward Daily, who had said he both saw the killings at No Gun Ri and heard an order to carry them out. Based on military records, Galloway reported that Daily misrepresented his role to the AP: that he was not a machine gunner and was neither part of the unit at No Gun Ri nor anywhere near the village during the period in question. The AP initially stuck by Daily, who had reaffirmed his statements to numerous media outlets, including an appearance on a Dateline NBC interview with then NBC anchor Tom Brokaw:
The AP then re-interviewed Daily who, when confronted with army records that conflicted with his statements, admitted he could not have been present during the incident, and instead had heard of it second hand. Daily had been a mechanic during the war and did not join the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry until 1951. In January 2002 he pleaded guilty to defrauding the government by collecting over $400,000 in benefits over 15 years for combat-related trauma from combat he never saw. Daily served a 21-month prison sentence.
In follow-up stories, the AP reporters interviewed other servicemen including Lawrence Levine and James Crume, who worked at the headquarters of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. Both said they believed that orders to shoot civilian refugees came from headquarters, though neither said he'd seen or heard such orders. In interviews, some of the American soldiers at No Gun Ri said they had been ordered to fire on the refugees because their commanders believed that North Korean troops, wearing white so as to look like peasants, had infiltrated the refugee column and were shooting at Americans. Others quoted by the AP referred repeatedly to receiving fire from among the refugees.
The New York Times reporter Felicity Barringer reported that Herman Patterson, a rifleman in the 2nd Battalion, said: "Unfortunately, the incident took place. Numbers are not known exactly." She also reviewed the conflicting news accounts of the events that transpired at No Gun Ri, concluding that at that point (spring, 2000) "in the end, the crucial centerpiece of The A.P. report, the American soldiers killed at least 100 Korean civilians — possibly under direct orders — has been chipped but hardly shattered by the latest revelations." Mr. Hanley also says that arguments about on-the-scene orders overlook two general orders from top commanders. The First Cavalry Division headquarters on July 24 had issued an order saying: "No refugees to cross the front line. Fire everyone trying to cross lines. Use discretion in case of women and children." in fact, the "General Order" was nor an order, just a radio log entry by a Major in a different regiment, unconnected to the 7th Cavalry, and not at No Gun Ri.
The most contested estimates concern the body count. A report of the Yeongdong County Office in South Korea, based upon self-reporting by present-day inhabitants, stated the total number of civilian casualties (injured, missing, or killed) to be 248. Some Korean victims have stated numbers in the hundreds. It's not clear what happened to the remains of those who were killed. Bateman speculates that between eight and 35 Koreans were killed at No Gun Ri, with two to three times that number wounded, due to mortar rounds and then a short bursts (30-90 seconds) of gunfire from the troops which occurred when the troops panicked and believed they were under fire themselves. Bateman wrote that declassified reconnaissance photos revealed no mass of bodies nor graves. Bateman, however, used only U.S. military reconnaissance and did not examine the village or interview any Koreans for his book. AP reporter Hanley has suggested that the dead were not in the open because they were stacked by local villagers beneath soil under parts of the bridge. Bateman contends that the soil required for burying hundreds of corpses even at a shallow level would have meant an excavation of soil so large (the remains alone for 300 small humans would be, roughly, 20 tons) that it would be visible in the photos. The AP contends that Korean witnesses testified to stacking bodies, but Bateman contends that the number of victims are conflated with other incidents in the vicinity during the war, and in the same timeframe. Citing the psychiatric studies, he speculates that none of the Koreans may believe they are lying, and he believes many if not most were fired upon by U.S. troops (he cites at least nine incidents that he found, and suspects dozens of other times where U.S. troops fired upon civilians in that period), just not all at the same time, and in the same place, at No Gun Ri.
As mentioned above, Edward Daily falsely corroborated the AP story and provided colorful descriptions of the incident, although he was not mentioned in the AP report until the 56th paragraph. During their defense of their Pulitzer story, the AP argued Daily was not central to their story, and merely was one witness among sixty they had interviewed. Bateman's book includes e-mails from Hanley which demonstrate that not only did the AP reporters refuse to recognize the flaws in Daily's testimony, but that Daily was more important than the AP suggested. Bateman believes that Daily, as a prominent member of the 7th Cavalry regimental association, had strong influence over other witnesses and that by virtue of his statements, the retired mechanic "contaminated" the views and recollections of other veterans. Additionally, it appears that Daily was central to guiding the AP to the American sources that the AP used, providing them with names, phone numbers, and addresses. Leaning upon the works of academic psychiatrist Elizabeth Loftus, Bateman described what he said was "the plasticity of memory" and susceptibility of some "memories" to outside suggestions from influential figures such as Daily, who had written two books on the history of the unit. Another AP witness inadvertently demonstrated Bateman's point in a front-page article in The New York Times. Veteran Eugene Hesselman denied the charge that Daily was not at No Gun Ri. He said, "I know that Daily was there. I know that. I know that." Bateman is skeptical of the recollections of Hesselman and Private First Class Delos Flint. Bateman claimed they were not present at No Gun Ri after he found records that they had been medically evacuated from the area on July 24th, one day before the events in question. Bateman said the AP did not quote any military men at No Gun Ri who heard an order to fire at civilians, the closest being those who "believed" that there "must have" been an order (Levine and Crume).
Bateman says compelling refugees to halt their advance by firing on them is "the dumbest possible action that could have been taken." Some Korean witnesses describe being strafed and bombed as they walked along the railway. Pictures taken on August 6, 1950, reveal strafing damage. Hanley, the AP reporter, argues that the U.S. forces called in strikes. Bateman argues that this was impossible because of the incompatibility between army and air force radios (AM vs. FM) and the fact that the same unit could not stop a U.S. Air Force strafing of their own position the very next day due to the lack of such radios. Bateman speculates that witnesses may have confused the mortars for bombs, and that the strafing shown in the photographs could have been from that period, or could have been from a later period.
Following the release of the AP account of No Gun Ri, the U.S. and the R.O.K. began independent parallel investigations. At the direction of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Army instructed the Inspector General of the Army to research and report on the No Gun Ri incident. In January 2001 the Inspector General released Report on the No Gun Ri Review. The primary judgments of the review were:
The following is a detailed list of the review's findings:
The summary concludes:
In 1999 the New York Times reported that 30 South Korean survivors and relatives of victims had filed a lawsuit in 1997 that "described a three-day period of killing, saying that American planes had strafed hundreds of refugees who were fleeing from North Korean troops, leaving about 100 people dead. The survivors fled under the bridge, where they said they were pinned by American troops who shot and killed almost all the refugees." Their suit was rejected on a technicality.
President Bill Clinton expressed U.S. regret over Korean civilian deaths. The United States and South Korea issued a joint "statement of mutual understanding" in January 2001, which stated that there were no orders to fire on civilians. It concluded the following:
On February 23, 2004, the History News Network hosted an online debate between Robert Bateman and the AP reporters who wrote the series of investigative articles in 1999.
According to historian Sahr Conway-Lanz, the position taken by the Pentagon after its 1999-2001 investigation — that the U.S. military did not order the refugees shot — is untenable. In an April 2006 book, Conway-Lanz published a letter from then U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, John J. Muccio, informing the State Department that U.S. troops were authorized to shoot at refugees. The letter referred to policy set down on July 25, 1950.
On May 29, 2006, the Associated Press reported in a story that was printed in The Washington Post that the letter, cited by Conway-Lenz, which had not previously been known, "is the strongest indication yet that such a policy existed for all U.S. forces in Korea, and (is) the first evidence that that policy was known to upper ranks of the U.S. government."
The Associated Press reported on April 12, 2007, that the Army has acknowledged it found — but did not divulge in 2001 when it issued its official inquiry — that a high-level document revealed the U.S. military had a policy of shooting approaching civilians in South Korea. The article said the document was one of numerous omissions of documents and testimony pointing to a policy of firing on refugee groups in the army's investigation.
Bateman's 2002 book, however, reproduced the entire military order which came out of that same high-level US-ROK meeting, and did so verbatim. These were the instructions that went from that highest level down to the divisions, and from there to the regiments, and from there to the battalions, over the next days. The letter, from the U.S. Ambassador to Korea to the State Department, describing the meeting out of which the orders flowed does not matter to military events on the ground at No Gun Ri. The AP articles on the topic try to suggest conspiracy on the part of the historians working on President Clinton's investigation. The State Department, however, did not command military troops in the field in Korea, and so the letter serves only as evidence impugning the credibility of any other government statement saying that orders had not been given. The Ambassador's letter may be irrelevant to the investigation of events that occurred the next day at No Gun Ri beyond establishing the mere existence of discussion of general orders at a high level regarding shooting refugees feared to contain hostile forces.
Koordinat: 36°10′30″N 127°46′30″E﻿ / ﻿36.175°N 127.775°E﻿ / 36.175; 127.775