June 1, 2000,
NEW YORK CITY The National Council of Churches is pressing the U.S. Defense
Department to reconsider its decision to delay investigation of events at No Gun-Ri and
instead to complete and make public your findings
at the earliest possible
opportunity.
At the request
of its South Korean counterpart, the National Council of Churches in Korea, the NCC since
December 1998 has been seeking a full investigation and report from the Pentagon in
response to detailed testimony from Korean survivors and eyewitnesses to the July 1950
massacre of innocent civilians, mostly women, children and the elderly, at No
Gun-Ri.
We
understand the difficulty in reconstructing and analyzing events of nearly a half-century
ago, wrote the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, NCC General Secretary, in a letter, dated May 30,
to U.S. Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen. However,
the announcement that there will be a substantial delay in your investigation and report
is a matter of deep concern to churches both in the United States and Korea.
We believe
the integrity of our democratic system requires no less than a full disclosure, Dr.
Edgar wrote. Moreover, our own
integrity in our relationships with the National Council of Churches in Korea is, in
point, based upon our assurance that such an investigation would be swift and
complete.
The long
delay in Defense Department reporting, announced at the very time national publications
were questioning the veracity of eyewitness accounts, gives the appearance of a wholesale
retreat from a search for the truth about No Gun-Ri, he said. Such a retreat would jeopardize not only our
relationships with the Korean churches but would signal an arrogance and indifference
unworthy of our nation and its professional military.
I urge you
to complete and make public your findings regarding the events at No Gun-Ri at earliest
opportunity, Dr. Edgar wrote. Only
through such a process can the findings of truth provide the foundation for reconciliation
between the peoples of the United States and Korea. Such
reconciliation is itself foundational to the peace we all seek.
-end-
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