1960년 ‘양민학살사건진상조사위원회’의 조직과 활동

The Civil Massacre Truth Close Special Committee’s Organization and Activities, 1960 : Focusing on the Special Committee “Reserch Report”

‘The Civil Massacre Truth Close Special Committee’ was a special committee of the National Assembly established in 1960 to investigate on the civilians massacre committed by the state power around the period of the Korean War. On May 20 after the 4·19 Civil Revolution, 『Hankookilbo』 reported the evidences of civilians massacre, including the killing of Park Young Bo who was a local leader in Geochang at the time of his death. This put the light on the civilians massacre hidden for the time being. Accordingly, the National Assembly passed the resolution for the establishment of this committee on May 23 1960. Though the committee activated during only 11 days, its activity had a historical significance that the authority had publicly dealt with its own slaughter on the civilians for the first time and tried to reveal the truth at the revolutionary atmosphere then. As a matter of fact, the Ministry of Home Affairs and provincial and local authorities had actively taken part in the investigation. The committee didn’t, however, make meaningful progress due to the within the National Assembly and the newly-established Cabinet. The 5·16 Military Regime disturbed the activity of the committee, which made it impossible to reveal the truth. The relatives of victims were prosecuted as left-wing collaborators at the military court, the monument was destroyed and the corpse were humiliated. On the other hand, the wrongdoers and offenders became the influential localities under the aegis of military regime. Truth and Reconciliation has once again been being tried on the basis of the Democratic Movements in 1980s. substantial investigations were carried out on local unit and the Special Acts on the 거창 Incident and the Jeju Incident were enacted in 1999. Recent political circumstance also, however, indicates the possibility of breaking off of these Truth-Reveal investigations. There must be no room for political standpoints on the civilian massacre as for ideological ones.