World

No Apology For No Gun Ri

December 21, 2000 / 4:35 PM EST / AP

The Clinton administration has decided not to issue a formal apology to South Korea for the U.S. Army's role in the shooting of civilians at No Gun Ri early in the Korean War, nor will it offer financial compensation to the survivors or families of the victims, two senior administration officials said.

The administration is, however, considering more modest gestures, including erecting a monument in honor of all civilians killed in the 1950-53 war and establishing a scholarship fund in memory of the No Gun Ri victims, the officials said.

The officials, interviewed separately, spoke on condition they not be identified.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said Thursday that it was premature to say what actions the administration would take in response to the findings of a recently completed U.S. Army investigation into No Gun Ri.

"It's not over until it's over," Bacon said, noting that Pentagon officials were meeting Thursday with a South Korean government delegation to discuss details of the investigation and possible responses. Heading the U.S. side in the talks was Franklin Kramer, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.

A call to the South Korean embassy seeking comment on the administration's stance was not immediately returned.

"While we have worked closely with the Korean government to investigate the circumstances surrounding No Gun Ri, we do not believe it is appropriate to issue an apology in this matter," one of the senior officials said.

Both of the officials who spoke to The Associated Press said specifics of possible financial gestures such as a scholarship fund have not been worked out.

On Tuesday, No Gun Ri survivors and their lawyer held a news conference in Washington to state their belief that the Army investigation — the results of which have not yet been released publicly — was a "whitewash." They also said they should be included in any negotiations about financial compensation.

In a statement last Friday, following talks with a separate group of South Korean officials, the Pentagon cited the importance of the U.S.-South Korean military alliance and a desire to conclude the No Gun Ri matter quickly.

While not mentioning possible U.S. responses to the investigation's findings, the statement said both sides "emphasized that the dignity and sacrifices made by the Korean villagers and U.S. veterans should not be diminished."

In his first public comments on the results of the investigation, Army Secretary Louis Caldera told reporters last week he no longer doubted that "there was loss of life" at No Gun Ri. "That was very regrettable." He said it would be up to President Clinton to decide on "remedies" for the incident.

Caldera said it is clear there were many civilian casualties in the Korean War and that "some of those civilian casualties were at the hand of Ameican soldiers."

"That conclusion is very different from the allegation that was made that this was a massacre in the classic sense that we lined up innocent people and gunned them down," he said, adding that the Army investigation found no definitive evidence that the U.S. soldiers at No Gun Ri fired on direct orders.

Former Rep. Pete McCloskey, R-Calif., a member of a civilian advisory panel monitoring the Army probe, said earlier this month that he disagreed with the reported conclusion of Army investigators that there was not enough evidence that the soldiers at No Gun Ri had orders to fire on refugees. McCloskey said the Pentagon had been too quick to dismiss the testimony of ex-GIs, and he would ask for a revision of the Army's report. "There is no question that there were orders," McCloskey told The Washington Post.

Ex-GIs and Korean survivors have been quoted in Associated Press reports as saying a large number of refugees were killed by U.S. troops over a three-day period in July 1950. Ex-GIs spoke of 100, 200 or simply hundreds killed. The Koreans say 300 were shot to death and 100 died in a preceding air attack.

The AP also cited wartime documents showing there were orders from at least three high-level Army headquarters and an Air Force command to treat as hostile any civilians approaching U.S. positions. On July 24, 1950, two days before the killings began at No Gun Ri, 1st Cavalry Division units were instructed: "No refugees to cross the front line. Fire everyone trying to cross lines. Use discretion in case of women and children." The unit that was at No Gun Ri was part of the 1st Cavalry Division.

In an article he wrote about No Gun Ri last summer, Donald Gregg, the head of the civilian advisory panel monitoring the Army investigation, said that whatever the administration decides regarding financial compensation to the victims, "a central part of our response to No Gun Ri must be symbolic."

Gregg suggested building a "carefully designed monument" near the bridge at No Gun Ri where the shootings took place with inscriptions satisfactory to both Koreans and Americans. He said such an enduring reminder "could do much to bring solace to all those involved in that long-ago tragedy."