Gwangju to examine old prison site for secret burials of May 18 victims

Posted on : 2017-10-19 17:54 KST Modified on : 2017-10-19 17:54 KST
During the democratization movement several residents shot by paratroopers
Lee Seung-il (77)
Lee Seung-il (77)

“Bullets were flying everywhere. They were shooting from a distance of three meters away.”

Lee Seung-il, 77, said on Oct. 18 that “still hurts my heart” to think of his experience during the Gwangju Uprising of 1980, when he narrowly survived being shot by paratroopers while driving in front of Gwangju Prison.

A resident of Daedeok township in South Jeolla Province’s Damyang County at the time of the uprising, Lee went in a friend’s pickup truck to Gwangju to buy wallpaper on May 21. Three village acquaintances traveled along with him to take care of their own business. Driving the truck was then 37-year-old Koh Gyu-seok, father of former The Blue K director Koh Young-tae, who was a key figure in blowing the whistle on the Park Geun-hye/Choi Soon-sil government interference scandal.

But that afternoon, Gwangju was in disorder after paratroopers opened fire in front of the old South Jeolla Provincial Office, prompting the group to hurry toward home in the direction of Gwangju Prison, where both the expressway onramp and a local two-lane road leading to Damyang were located.

“They parked military vehicles crosswise to block the road, and the paratroopers fired on the cars as they stopped,” he recalled.

“Everyone was shot at and fell down, but in my case there was only a bullet hole in my clothes,” Lee said. At the time, the 3rd Airborne Brigade was stationed near Gwangju Prison.

Driver Koh and passenger Im Eun-taek, 35, died of their wounds, while additional passenger Park Man-cheon sustained a wound to the leg. Lee fled for around 20 meters before being captured by paratroopers and taken toward the prison entrance.

“One of them, a major I think, asked me if I was injured. When I said no, he said, ‘Let’s just let him live,’ and that’s how I survived,” he recalled. Left in shock, Lee walked for around five hours back to his home in Damyang.

The victims’ bodies were found ten days later around May 31. Eight sets of remains in total were found buried secretly inside the prison.

“I saw one of his shoes and knew it was my husband,” said Im’s widow Choi Jeong-hee, 70. “It enrages me even now to think about it.”

Im’s family members had traveled to every hospital in downtown Gwangju and searched through the hills near the prison, but failed to find any trace of him.

“There were rumors going around that the Gwangju city government was digging for the bodies secretly buried by the paratroopers,” Choi remembered. Park died around one year later from the aftereffects of his injuries.

 a participant in the May 18 Democratization Movement who narrowly avoided being shot by paratroopers while driving in front of Gwangju Prison
a participant in the May 18 Democratization Movement who narrowly avoided being shot by paratroopers while driving in front of Gwangju Prison

Although military authorities listed a total of 28 civilians killed around Gwangju Prison in findings of their investigation into the incident, only 11 victims – including Koh – were identified in the prosecutors’ investigation; the identities of the other 17 remain unknown. On Oct. 18, the May 18 Memorial Foundation launched an investigation of the former Gwangju Prison site, where other bodies are believed to have been secretly buried during the incident.

The prison building has remained empty since the detention center was relocated to a new site in Gwangju’s Ilgok neighborhood. As part of a local survey through Oct. 19, experts in forensic medicine, forensic dentistry, and archeology are to discuss the excavation method and the identification procedure once the presence of human remains has been verified.

“Based on a rough sketch of burial locations drawn by a member of the 3rd Airborne Brigade deployed as part of the martial law army and a tip from a citizen who claimed to have witnessed secret burials in the prison, we plan to focus our excavation on around two suspected burial sites,” explained foundation Executive Director Kim Yang-rae.

By Jung Dae-ha, Gwangju correspondent

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