Ex-president's memoir angers people in Gwangju

By Kim Se-jeong

A memoir by former President Chun Doo-hwan is angering people in Gwangju and South Jeolla Province, where a popular uprising against his military regime in May 1980 was violently suppressed by armed forces.

Bookstores in Gwangju were flooded with complaints and requests to remove copies of the memoir from their shelves. A Kyobo bookstore in Jamsil, southeastern Seoul, also received a request from a shopper to remove the copies. “After taking time to calm down, I asked the bookstore director to remove the books from shelves,” the shopper told the Hankyoreh, a local newspaper.

The May 18 Memorial Foundation said Wednesday that along with other groups and lawyers, it will ask a court to ban sales of “Chun Doo-hwan’s Memoir,” which went on sale April 3 across the country.

“Chun is denying history. Chun was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court,” the foundation said in a statement. “Instead of repenting what he did, he is trying to make a case for himself in the book.’’

Local newspapers are also joining forces to criticize Chun.

“Chun claims he had nothing to do with the May 18 uprising and never ordered the military’s intervention and suppression of people,” the Jeonnam Ilbo wrote in an editorial. “His pardon in 1997 was to give him an opportunity to repent, but he actually hasn’t done it. His memoir should be taken off bookshelves.”

In May 1980, people revolted against the military regime which responded with force, resulting in 606 deaths. Chun was found guilty of numerous charges including insurrection and bribery. He was sentenced to death, which was commuted to life in prison, but pardoned in 1997. In 2011, records about the uprising were added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

In the book, he claimed he was a victim. “I think all the hate speech against me comes from the May 18 uprising. I was an offering given to heal the wounds of the people. I have been made to carry the cross… Only the fact that I was the president meant I was a sinner.”

He also referred to the uprising as riots, which prompted a group of lawyers and activists in Gwangju to consider a defamation lawsuit.