Crowd of 50,000 in Kwangju ‘Unthinkable’ in Past : S. Korean Rally Illustrates New Tolerance of Dissent

Eight years after citizens of this provincial capital took up arms against brutal repression by South Korean government troops, suffering hundreds or even thousands of casualties in the process, the name Kwangju has suddenly taken on new meaning.

A recent government policy of limited tolerance for dissent has changed public perception of this city in the southwestern Cholla region from a citadel of rebellion to an important center in South Korea’s quest for democracy.

The scene here Wednesday--when about 50,000 people, including busloads of students from Seoul, marked the anniversary of the bloody “Kwangju incident”--would have been unthinkable in previous years. People were given the right to assemble, and to peacefully express their anger.

“We didn’t have the courage, or the freedom, to do what we wanted to do last year,” said Choi Ok Ki, a 32-year-old businessman who watched a massive rally from a rooftop.

Police stayed out of sight as tens of thousands of people visited Mangwoldong Cemetery, where many victims of the 1980 fighting are buried. In previous years only several hundred people had been able to visit the graves, hiking over the hills because the roads were blocked. And they were always far outnumbered by riot police.

Authorities once forcibly removed relatives of the dead, loading them on buses and taking them out of the city, to dampen protests. But this year officials provided special bus service to the cemetery and put up signs showing the way.

Indeed, although mothers in traditional white mourning robes wailed over the graves of their sons, the cemetery took on a festive atmosphere as vendors sold soda and dried squid along the roadside.

Despite the unprecedented numbers of demonstrators, there was a conspicuous lack of violence.

In contrast, a student protest in downtown Seoul on Wednesday erupted into violence, with police shelling demonstrators with tear gas and demonstrators responding with firebombs and rocks.

The government says 193 citizens were killed in the nine days of disturbances here in 1980, which started when troops suppressed nonviolent demonstrations over the declaration of martial law by former President Chun Doo Hwan, who was then an army general, and the arrest of dissident leader Kim Dae Jung, whose political base is here. Demonstrators took up arms and drove the troops out of the city but were later crushed in an army tank assault.

Eyewitnesses say they saw the army carry away loads of bodies in trucks and helicopters, and estimates of the death toll go as high as 1,000 to 2,000. The scope of the carnage has never been substantiated, dissident leaders say, because relatives of the missing have been afraid of being persecuted for their association with the “rebels.”

“We urged people to report before, but because of the rigid social atmosphere and the military’s control of the government, no one was willing to come forward,” said Chun Ke Ryang, head of an association of bereaved families. “But the atmosphere has become much more relaxed.”

The change at Kwangju comes after widespread rioting in Seoul and other cities last June forced the government to pledge democratic reforms. An official panel reviewing the Kwangju incident tried to restore the city’s honor earlier this year by announcing that the demonstrators were not rebels, but rather patriots seeking democracy. President Roh Tae Woo issued an apology and called for the healing of old wounds, but the opposition dismissed the committee’s findings as a whitewash.

A thorough investigation into the 1980 events is the top issue before the new Assembly, which is expected to open before June.

Meanwhile, many activists here are demanding that discovery of the truth be followed by swift punishment for those responsible.

“I personally don’t seek revenge,” said Hong Nam Soon, 74, a Kwangju attorney who is seeking new trials for people convicted of crimes in connection with the incident. “I don’t believe the point of the investigation should be retaliation, but many people in Kwangju feel otherwise. Somehow, those responsible must be punished.”

Criticism of Roh, the former general who was elected president last December after being handpicked by Chun Doo Hwan as his successor, centers on the fact that he was commander of the garrison in Seoul. In that capacity he is suspected of supporting Chun’s coup and may have had some connection with troop movements during the Kwangju incident.

South Koreans are also demanding a probe into the role of the U.S. military amid widening anti-American sentiment. The American commander of allied forces in South Korea technically is in charge of South Korean troops, and critics speculate that he must have condoned and supported the suppression in Kwangju. The U.S. military denies this.