A South Korean court docket on Tuesday ordered the federal government to pay 30 million received ($24,000) to a Vietnamese girl who survived a gunshot wound however misplaced a number of family members when South Korean marines rampaged by means of her village in the course of the Vietnam Battle in 1968.
In awarding the compensation to 62-year-old Nguyen Thi Thanh, the Seoul Central District Courtroom dismissed the federal government’s argument that it was unclear whether or not South Korean troops had been liable for the slaughter within the village of Phong Nhi in central Vietnam.
The court docket additionally rejected the federal government’s argument that civilian killings had been unavoidable as a result of the South Korean troops had been coping with Viet Cong guerrillas who typically blended with villagers, in keeping with Thanh’s lawyer, Lim Jae-sung. The federal government’s legal professionals had been additionally unsuccessful in invoking a statute of limitations.
The ruling marks the primary time a South Korean court docket has discovered the federal government liable for mass killings of Vietnamese civilians in the course of the conflict and will probably open the best way for related lawsuits. Then dominated by anti-communist navy leaders, South Korea despatched greater than 320,000 troops to Vietnam, the biggest international contingent preventing alongside U.S. troops.
South Korea’s Justice Ministry didn’t instantly reply to a question about whether or not the federal government will attraction.
The federal government has by no means formally acknowledged accountability for civilian massacres linked to South Korean troopers in Vietnam, which some specialists say had been probably liable for 1000’s of deaths. These atrocities haven’t meaningfully impacted official relations with Vietnam, whose rising financial system advantages from South Korean funding.
Based on U.S. navy paperwork and survivors, greater than 70 folks had been killed and round 20 others injured when South Korean marines allegedly fired at unarmed civilians as they swept by means of Phong Nhi and the close by village of Phong Nhut on February 12, 1968. The motion got here after least one South Korean soldier obtained struck and injured by close by enemy hearth.
Thanh, then 7 years previous, was handled for gunshot wounds in her abdomen whereas 5 of her relations died, together with her mom, sister, and brother.
Based on U.S. navy investigation data, U.S. Marines and South Vietnamese militia supplied medical remedy to villagers who fled as South Korean troopers continued to shoot contained in the villages.
U.S. Marines later entered the villages and located piles of our bodies in numerous areas, many burned or buried in ash. One U.S. soldier took pictures, which had been used as proof throughout Thanh’s trial.
Thanh filed the lawsuit in opposition to the South Korean authorities in 2020 and testified on the Seoul court docket final August. The trial additionally included the testimonies of different Vietnamese villagers and South Korean conflict veterans equivalent to Ryu Jin-seong, a member of the marine unit linked to the assaults in Phong Nhi and Phong Nhut. He supplied a first-hand account of how the South Korean troopers shot at unarmed civilians, a lot of them youngsters and ladies.
Thanh, who awaited the ruling in Vietnam, mentioned she was “overjoyed” by her court docket victory.
“I think that the souls (of those who died in Phong Nhi) were always with me and supported me,” she mentioned in a video message translated by her authorized staff. “I am overjoyed because I think that the souls can now rest easy.”
The South Korean authorities had argued there was no conclusive proof that South Korean troops had been liable for the killings, even suggesting that the aggressors could have been Viet Cong fighters disguised in South Korean uniforms who had been making an attempt psychological warfare.
The federal government additionally insisted that even when South Korean troopers had been concerned, their aggressive response was defensible as a result of they had been dealing with fixed threats from Viet Cong guerrillas who typically hid amongst villagers and actively recruited younger girls.
Thanh’s legal professionals pushed again on the declare, saying there was no approach to justify the killings when South Korean veterans have persistently mentioned they didn’t face any significant resistance or aggression from the villagers, who had been rounded up and shot from shut vary.
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