Bình Hòa Massacre

The Bình Hòa Massacre, (, ) was a massacre purportedly conducted by South Korean forces between December 3 and December 6, 1966, of 430 unarmed civilians in Bình Hòa village, Quảng Ngãi Province in South Vietnam. In 2000, however, it was reported that a monument within the village, gave the dates of the massacre as October 22, 24, and 26, 1966 and said that 403 people were killed by the South Koreans.

The district was in the operational area of the Blue Dragon Brigade. Most of the victims were children, elderly and women. More than half the victims were women (including seven who were pregnant) and 166 children. The South Korean soldiers burnt down all of the houses and killed hundreds of cows and buffalo after the atrocities. A number of the survivors of the massacre joined the Viet Cong and fought against the United States and its Allies, one of which was South Korea. South Korean forces were also accused of conducting a similar massacre in Binh Tai village within the same year.

The massacre was discussed when British journalist Justin Wintle visited Vietnam in the late 1980s, where the report on the massacre was disclosed to Western media.

Damage in Quang Ngai Province

The estimated number of civilians killed by the ROK military in Quang Ngai Province, including Binh Hoa Commune, during the Vietnam War is as follows:

Citizens' Peace Tribunal

On April 22-23, 2018, several civil society organizations in South Korea, including the Lawyers for a Democratic Society and the Korea-Vietnam Peace Foundation, held the Citizens' Peace Tribunal for the Investigation of the Truth about the Massacre of Civilians by the Korean Army during the Vietnam War. In this Citizens' Peace Tribunal, Nguyen Thi Thanh, a survivor of the Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat massacres, and Nguyen Thi Thanh (with the same name), a survivor of the Ha My massacre, appeared as plaintiffs and sued the South Korean government for damages. The court of the Citizens' Peace Tribunal accepted their claims, ruled for compensation according to the State Compensation Act, and recommended that the South Korean government conduct a fact-finding investigation. The Citizens' Peace Tribunal is a mock trial and has no legal binding force, but was considered significant in declaring the massacre as a universal human rights issue. The Citizens' Peace Tribunal argued that a special law was needed to eliminate the statute of limitations. In addition, Minbyun is currently in the process of filing a lawsuit requesting the disclosure of the Central Intelligence Agency's data that investigated the Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat massacre in 1968. The National Intelligence Service initially refused to disclose the information on the grounds of "diplomatic disadvantage," but when it received a court order to disclose it, it again refused to disclose the information on the grounds of "personal information."

In popular culture

The Binh Hoa massacre was featured in the Korean documentary ''The Last Lullaby'' on the subject of Korean atrocities in South Vietnam.

See also

* List of massacres in Vietnam
* Military history of South Korea during the Vietnam War
* War Remnants Museum

References

Further reading

* Kim, Hyun Sook Lee
Korea's "Vietnam Question": War Atrocities, National Identity, and Reconciliation.
''Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique'', Volume 9, Number 3, Winter 2001, p. 622-635. E-ISSN 1527-8271

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Binh Hoa massacre
Massacres in the Vietnam War
1966 in South Vietnam
Massacres in 1966
Massacres committed by South Korea
Vietnam War crimes by South Korea
History of Quảng Ngãi province
December 1966 in Asia