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Show The Salt Lake Tribune WORLD Wednesday, December29, 1999 U.S. Strafed Korean Refugees ecords showpilots often unsure if targets wereciviliansor militants THE ASSOCIATED PRESS airpower often proved pivotal. Previous AP articles, in September and October, cited U.S. veterans, Korean witnesses and ZIn 1950-51, as war refugees fooded South Korea's roads, American jets attacked groups of declassified documentsin report- foreans in civilian clothes on Pspicion they harbored enemy filtrators, according to declassifed U.S. military documents and forean and American witnesses. = Large numbers of South Koran refugees were killed in some q@ses, witnesses told The Associ- aged Press. In one strike, Korean survivors said, U.S. firebombs lied about300 civilians trapped igpacave. = After-mission reports from the rean War show that U.S. Air Borce pilots, flying in support of ing that hundreds of other South Korean refugees were killed by U.S. Army troops in mid-1950 as the retreating Americans struggled to defend South Korea against a North Korean invasion. American ground commanders feared that enemysoldiers, disguised in the common white clothingofcivilians, were joining South Korean refugee columnsin order to penetrate U.S.lines. Documents found in declassified military archives show that some troops were ordered to shoot ap- h$treating U.S. troops in mid-1950, spmetimes questioned their argets. proaching civilians — orders that ney law experts say were in one, pilots said a Korean “People in white” became Air Force targets as well, according to the once-secret Air Force files examined by the AP. group strafed at an airborne con- oller’s instruction “could have Ween refugees.”In another declassified report they said their target ‘Appeared to be evacuees.” 5 Someofthose pilots, in recent P interviews, said they worried hat at times they were machinebunning innocents. “We were concerned, very con- erned,” said Air Force retiree erman SonofSt. Louis. Hesaidit ‘was by no means clear on the jurface who these people were.” Some ex-pilots said they reember breaking off attacks then they realized their targets ere civilians. Thesituation was ipelled out in an after-mission reort six weeks into the war. “Somepeople in white clothes were strafed three to four miles south of Yusong,” an aftermission report by four 35th Squadronpilots noted on July 20, 1950. A spotter aircraft, or controller, “said to fire on people in white clothes,” the debriefing report said. ‘The AP located the declassified debriefings at the U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base,Ala., and at the National Archives in College Park, Md., while investigating what happened at No Gun Ri, South Korea, July 26-29, 1950, “Pilots havedifficulty in deterining whether personnel in emy-held territory are noncomatants or not,” reads the report when witnesses say U.S. warplanes killed about 100 refugees and U.S. Army troops then killed about300 more. jomber Squadron. “Leaflets The AP reported in September that Army veterans confirmed their unit killed a large numberof y pilots in Son’s 35th Fighter- thould be dropped on them warng them to keep out of sight or at they will be strafed.” civilians at the No Gun Rirailroad bridge. The U.S. and South Korean The new information, on which governments immediately or- e Pentagon had no direct coment, sheds light on yet another ‘iddensideofthe “forgotten war” gees were killed in other U.S. f 1950-53, a conflict in which U.S. dered investigations. The AP later reported hundreds of other refuArmyoperations in mid-1950. Advised in advance of the AP’s report on theair war, chief Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon reiterated that completing the No Gun Ri probe is thefirst priority. “Then the departmentwill decide if other incidents warrantfurther study,”he said. Since the No Gun Ri report was published, the South Korean Defense Ministry has received peti- tions relating to at least 37 incidents in which U.S. forces allegedly kilied South Koreancivilians indiscriminately during the Ko- rean war, the ministry says. The petitions ask for investigations and some for compensation. Most of those publicly reported relate to air attacks on refugees. “T want to ask the U.S, government why,” said survivor Hong Won-ki, who has petitioned Washingtonfor an accounting ofa strafing in which his parents were illed. “It was clear that we were 3,” Witnesses say they refrained from speaking out after the war because they feared reprisals This U.S. Army photo showsthreecivilian Korean women wounded bya firebomb during a U.N. airstrike against communistforces on Feb. 4, 1951, near Suwonin present-day South Korea. from the South Korean military, which ruled the country until household goods just inside, they 1992. Someof the reported U.S. air attacks on refugees occurred in January 1951, another period of “People yelied and cried for retreat, when U.S. forces and South Korean refugees were driven deeper into South Korea by an offensive by North Korea’s Chinese allies, but when American warplanes still monopolized South Korean skies. Local villagers said American bombing andstrafing killed about 300 South Korean civilians on Jan. 20, 1951, at a cave where they took refuge in Youngchoon, 90 miles southeast of Seoul, South Korea's capital. The Chinese front line was several miles to the north, a said. Mostvictims suffocated from smoke. their children,” said Cho Bongwon,64.“People choked andfell.” Earlier that week, 60 miles to the west, another 300 South Koreanrefugees were killed by a U.S. air attack as they jammed storage house at the village of Doon- po, said survivor Kim In-tae,58. Kim, now a Presbyterian min- ister, said the planes bombed the location after the refugees set a fire outside to keep warm.“I woke up from the piles of corpses after three days,” Kim said. The petition from Hong Wonki, a retired newspaperexecutive, The area outside the cave was describes an air attack on Yongin, 30 miles south of Seoul,after busy with people coming and going, villagers said. An observer plane circled and then four planes dropped incendiary bombs near the cave’s entrance, setting fire to refugees rushed outside to wave at approaching U.S. planes, and a second strafing the next day, Jan. 12, 1951, after his family left the village and trekked south with US. Armyhistory shows. other refugees. As American planes neared, the group crouched down with their baggage overtheir heads“to show that we werejust refugees,” said Hong,14at the time. But one planestrafed them,killing Hong’s parents and other refugees, he said. On Jan. 15, villagers said, planes returned to Yong-in, still crowded with refugees. They described strafings and apparent as he traveled north with U.S. troops on Jan, 26, 1951. “There were womenandchildren. It was a dreadful sight, id Becker, now chairman of Hawaiian publictelevision. His AP report at the time noted the U.S. military's contentionthat the refugee column had been strafed by American planes more than a week earlier because “intelligence learned that Chinese soldiers were hiding among napalm attacks. “Each time a them.” plane swooped down and sprayed bullets, about 20 or 30 peoplefell,” said Kim Young-kyu, then 14. But no weapons could be seen, and anAir Force pressofficer who A former AP war correspondent described the aftermath of a couldn't point to evidenceofinfil- large-scale strafing around the same time, a few miles from Yong-in and possibly linked to those attacks. dim Becker, 74, said in an interview he saw the frozen bodies ofatleast 200 Koreansin civilian clothes alonga road southof Seoul returned to the scene with him trators, Becker said. American military photographs fromthat area and time period showKorean civilians badly burned from U.S. napalm attacks. The photos, found by the AP at the Natio! Archives, originally were classified for U.S. Armystaff distribution only. hinese Police Detain 20 FalunGong Members Fires, Bomb Attacks on Japan’s Railways ‘THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BEIJING — Police detained at least 20 people who eathered in Tiananmen Square on Tuesday, part of ‘ina’s continuing crackdown on members of the menned meditation group Falun Gong. Members of the sect have been staging low-key ‘otests for months in Tiananmen Square, the symblic heart of political power in China. Butacts of il disobedience had dropped off for more than a onth until the sentencing of four group leaders bnday. In an effort to avoid new protests, police closely atched the square Tuesday, questioning anyone eemed suspicious. Police surrounded 10 followers ho tried to protest, grabbing one by the arms and ishing him into a van.Atleast 10 other people were fiso detained, picked upsingly or in groups of two or 0 bypolice. China has detained thousands of Falun Gong’s k-and-file followers since outlawing the groupfive onths ago. Some whorefused to recanttheir beliefs or boldly practiced in public have been sent to labor camps hile trials have beenreserved for key organizers. Police rearrested a university student in Dalian ‘ity and last week sent her to a labor campfor three years for posting on the Interneta picture of her ankles, bloody and infected from police leg irons, the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movementin China reported y. Police had put Zhang Chunging in 22-pound shackles andforced herto walk after she continued to practice Falun Gong in detention, the centersaid. The governmenthas previously denied any abuse of Falun Gong members. State-run television Mondaynight showed the four sentenced group leaders — Li Chang, Wang Zhiwen, di Liewu and Yao Jie — admitting to organizing Help Increase Apprehension Over Y2K THE WASHINGTON POST TOKYO — series of small fires and homemadeexplosivede- vices found in trains and train stations has added to the unease in Japan about the upcoming millennial change. Commuters bustled between trains Tuesday with the blare of groupactivities, including an April 25 demonstration loudspeakers broadcasting cau- by 10,000 followers outside the Communist Party leadership compound that provoked Chinese leaders to ban the group three months later. and trash cans that were sealed to tions, past coin-operated lockers prevent the possibility of bombs Yao, the only woman among the defendants, was shown tearfullytelling the court that she was wrong being planted. In the lastfive days, two small For her repentance, Yao received a 7-year jail in train stations,slightly injuring one man, andthree arson fires were set simultaneously under to have believed in Falun Gong and that she had abandoned her duties as a communist. term,the lightestofthe three.Li got 18 years, Wang 16 and Ji 12. All were convicted after one-daytrial of organizing and using a cult to undermine laws, causing deaths and illegally obtaining and disseminating state secrets. incendiary devices have exploded the seats on trains, causing delays. The incidents and the warnings they brought come on the heels of the government's mixed messages about possible technological tur- agreed fellow commuter Yoshikazu Adachi. Authorities say they do not insist the country is ready for Y2K, but have told people to stockpile food and water, and have placed 96,000 troops on call for foam balis with timing devices. moil around NewYear's. Officials New Year’s Eve, including teams trained to handle nuclear and chemical accidents. More than 106,000 police also will be on duty. The extraordinary call to manpowerand the rashoftrain incidents has spooked someresidents. “T feel, undeniably, that something will happen,” said com- know wholeft the explosives, apparently packed in small Styro- They say they believe the fires were set by opponents of con- struction of a controversial sec- ond runway at Narita Airport. One of the explosive devices was found by a locker attendant Monday morning at Urawastation, just north of Tokyo. Two of his fingers were injured whenthe device wentoff as he moved it. A who would seize the opportunity small bomb exploded Friday in a bin at a train depot, apparently swept up with the trash from the high-speed Shinkansen train. No one was injured. On Sunday, three guerrilla groups still are around,” trains serving Narita airport, causing delays butnoinjuries. muter Masao Ikeda,65, standing in a Tokyo subwaystation. “First, there’s the Y2K problem itself. Then there are somecriminals to do something and makeit look like Y2K.” “Politically motivated fires broke out under seats on Over Stock 4 For those HARD-TO-SHOP-FORfriends,relatives, shut-in’s, newlyweds & college students, give the gift that’s perfect for all occasions... The Salt Lake Tribune or Deseret News It's a practical and unique gift that holds something special for people of all ages and fits into every shopping budget. We will deliver a Gift Card with the first day of service. CALL 237-2960 !! DAY! TOPoo seaee FREE DIGITAL PHONES TWO FREE PHONES ONE FREE NINTENDO 64 or SONY PLAYSTATION 300 SHARED a) $19,97/LINE |
