Fear, secrecy kept 1950 Korea mass killings hidden

[maddezmom]

Fear, secrecy kept 1950 Korea mass killings hidden

By CHARLES J. HANLEY
The Associated Press
Sunday, May 18, 2008; 1:26 PM

SEOUL, South Korea -- One journalist's bid to report mass murder in South Korea in 1950 was blocked by his British publisher. Another correspondent was denounced as a possibly treasonous fabricator when he did report it. In South Korea, down the generations, fear silenced those who knew.

Fifty-eight years ago, at the outbreak of the Korean War, South Korean authorities secretively executed, usually without legal process, tens of thousands of southern leftists and others rightly or wrongly identified as sympathizers. Today a government Truth and Reconciliation Commission is working to dig up the facts, and the remains of victims.

How could such a bloodbath have been hidden from history?

Among the Koreans who witnessed, took part in or lost family members to the mass killings, the events were hardly hidden, but they became a "public secret," barely whispered about through four decades of right-wing dictatorship here.

more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/18/AR2008051801266.html?nav=ft_world

[Poll_Blind]

1. Wow, thanks for posting this. I'm going to try to do some reading up on it a bit later. n/t

PB