Lee Young-jo, president of Korea’s
Truth and Reconciliation Commission |
By Do Je-hae
Staff Reporter
For the past 100 years, Korea has been through a great deal of turmoil from Japanese colonial rule and the fratricidal Korean War to democratization.
Lee Young-jo, president of Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KTRC), said during an interview that this turbulent history has generated "forgotten victims," who happened to be on the wrong side of history and had to endure much suffering.
Lee sees the launch of the commission as a sign that Korea has developed enough to confront the dark side of its past and rectify mistakes made during its transformation into a modern nation.
"Its activities demonstrate that Korea is mature enough to face its past. There is now a general consensus that such misdeeds must be dealt with at some point.
"It has been routine for most countries to investigate incidents that only happened not long before democratization. Our scope of investigation goes back 100 years," Lee said.
Since its inception in 2005, the agency has successfully verified around 80 percent of 11,000 petitions.
"There are two other countries in Asia that operate similar organizations - Cambodia and East Timor," Lee said. "But it was only after recommendations from the U.N. that they built their organizations to investigate past state misdeeds. Koreans should take pride in the fact that we were able to conceive and achieve the establishment of the body on our own, without any external suggestion," Lee said.
Brazil, which was democratized in 1985, announced in 2009 that it would launch an organization this year to look into the human rights violations. But again, this was at the suggestion of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Lee said.
The KTRC is charged with investigating civilian massacres before and after the 1950-53 Korean War, and human rights violations or unlawful exercise of authority during authoritarian rule.
The group was modeled after South Africa's now-defunct Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the 1990s. It is preparing to wrap up its mission. Its four-year term ends in April, but it will continue to work until December.
"Historical reconciliation is one of the few areas in which Korea can be a reference for other countries. Compared to other countries that run similar organizations, we have resolved more cases. We should be proud of that," Lee said.
Korea has been relatively successful in this regard, partly because of the abundance of past investigation and trial records.
"Compared to countries in Africa, we have more evidence that can be verified through records. Even records during the war and the Japanese occupation still survive today," Lee said.
Researchers at the commission have the right to access these records at the National Archive of Korea, the National Library and other related institutions.
Many are wondering what sort of a legacy the commission is set to leave behind.
"We now have precious and detailed records on Korea's past, told from the view of the victims," Lee said. "That's what sets our work apart from that of historians.
"Our work is aimed at contributing to establishing a society of justice. We also wish to serve as a reminder to the people that history is severe in its judgment."
Korea had institutionalized political democracy by the 1990s and it was only then that it started thinking about dealing with the past.
The commission has a legislative mandate to conduct comprehensive investigations and research into events that took place after Japanese colonial rule formally began in 1910.
Ahead of the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, it will put more emphasis on publicizing the results of their studies regarding the victims of the so-called "forgotten war."
Through excavations of burial sites and interviews with eyewitnesses, it admitted last November that South Korea murdered thousands of its own citizens in the opening weeks of the 1950-53 Korean War.
"We plan to hold an international forum sometime in the latter half of the year to share with the world our achievements," said the president of the commission.
It will also publish an English-language book that sums up their four years of work.
Lee, 54, holds a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University. He has worked for the commission as a tribunal member since 2005 before he assumed its top position in February. He plans to go back to teaching at Kyunghee University after the commission's term expires at the end of the year.
jhdo@koreatimes.co.kr
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무디스, 스페인·伊·포르투갈 신용등급 강등
