Radar will locate exact burial site in Gwangju

By Jun Ji-hye

Ground-penetrating radar and other high-tech equipment will be used to locate a site where bodies are believed to have been buried in secret in 1980 during the military junta’s bloody crackdown on a pro-democracy movement in Gwangju.

According to the May 18 Memorial Foundation, which is leading a government-approved fact-finding team, Tuesday, the work will begin Oct. 30 at an old prison in the southwestern city.

After its two-day field inspection last week, the team concluded that a farm within the compound of the prison was used as a secret burial site for victims of the crackdown.

The foundation said at a news conference Monday that heavy equipment will be mobilized to remove asphalt and soil land, and high-tech equipment such as ground-penetrating radar will be used to carry out the excavation more precisely.

It may take 15 to 20 days to locate the exact burial site, the foundation said.

The prison was used as a base for paratroopers during the May 1980 Gwangju Uprising, in which citizens rose up against the military rule of then-Army General Chun Doo-hwan.

According to military documents at the time, 28 protesters captured during the uprising died at the prison. Among them, 11 of their bodies have been found so far.

The foundation has gathered testimonies from former prison officers and prisoners of the time before concluding that the farm was used as a secret burial site. A rough map created by a paratrooper also indicated at least 17 bodies were secretly buried in the farm area, the foundation added.

“The prosecution will begin an investigation once the remains are unearthed,” said Kim Yang-rae, the executive director of the foundation. “We will make every effort to reflect opinions of the bereaved families of the missing persons in the excavation work.”

The work to find the remains of the victims are in line with President Moon Jae-in’s ongoing efforts to unearth the details behind the incident.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Chun to death in 1996 for the bloody crackdown that resulted in hundreds of deaths, but the Supreme Court reduced the sentence to life imprisonment in 1997. Then-President Kim Young-sam pardoned him in December the same year under his “grand national unity” campaign.

Chun and his aides still deny responsibility for the bloody suppression of the democratic movement.