WAR CRIMES AND ATROCITIES (True Crime) (30 page)

The government invasion began on 25 June, which resulted in thousands of people being detained in four separate groups. These groups were divided on their perceived security risk – A, B, C and D. On 30 August, a written order was received by a senior intelligence officer in the South Korean Navy, which instructed the Jeju police to kill all those held in groups C and D by firing squad.

The rebellion continued until the end of the Korean War and it is estimated that as many as 30,000 to 80,000 islanders were killed during this period.

My Lai Massacre

1968

The villages of central Vietnam are known collectively as ‘My Lai’ (literal translation ‘Son My’), and have been subjected to the most horrific acts of war. The so-called My Lai massacre, took place on 16 March 1968, and was a turning point in the public’s view of the Vietnam War. In a period of just three hours, over 500 Vietnamese civilians, many women and children, were slaughtered in cold blood at the hands of US soldiers.

My Lai lay in the South Vietnamese district of Son My, an area that had been heavily mined by the Vietcong. Many soldiers of Charlie Company, a unit of the US Division’s 11th Infantry Brigade, had been maimed or killed in the area, which had left them angry and frustrated. Led by Lieutenant William Calley, Charlie Company entered My Lai, expecting to be confronted by the elusive 48th Vietcong Battalion.

Unsure of what was ahead of them, Charlie Company had been given the order to ‘search and destroy’. There were reports that all the civilians had left the village and that the remaining people were either Vietcong or their sympathizers.

As they entered the village, Calley gave the instruction to his men to go in firing, even though they were met with no opposing fire. In the carnage that followed, old men were bayoneted, women and children, including babies, were shot in the back of the head and several young girls were gang raped before being killed. Soldiers went beserk, showing no mercy, even to the families that were huddled together in their huts. The Vietnamese, who tried to show a sign of respect to the soldiers by bowing, were greeted with torture, either by first, clubbed with rifle butts or stabbed with boyonets. Those who emerged with their hands raised in surrender, were simply mowed down. Some victims were mutilated with the signature ‘C Company’ carved into their chests. Wounded villagers simply stood frozen on the spot, shock and disbelief in their eyes as they watched what was going on around them. Not one of the victims was an armed Vietcong fighter – all were innocent civilians. There was not one US soldier killed or injured in the period of the entire massacre, with the exception of one soldier who shot himself in the foot while cleaning his own pistol.

The total death toll was over 500 in a period of just a few hours. Calley, himself, was reported to have killed 60 civilians who were crouching down in a ditch, after his men balked at his order to shoot.

MILITARY RESCUE

By late morning the word had reached a US army helicopter crew, who came to the assistance of the villagers. The pilot, Hugh Thompson, landed his helicopter in between the terrified villagers and the soldiers, who seemed to be totally out of control. He ordered his men to fire on any US soldiers who continued to threaten any villagers and radioed for help. Two more helicopters arrived and managed to airlift a dozen villages to safety.

AFTERMATH

In the aftermath of the massacre, soldiers on the scene made every effort to cover up their misdeeds, in the hope that the true number of victims would not be revealed. When the news of what had happened at My Lai reached the American public, they were outraged and demanded the immediate withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. The My Lai massacre had simply opened the eyes of people who had previously paid no particular attention to the war.

Despite the fact that the massacre was recorded on film by an army photographer who accompanied Charlie Company, the incident could possibly have gone by without investigation if an army officer by the name of Ron Ridenhour, hadn’t written a letter directly to President Nixon. He also sent copies to the Pentagon, the State Department, the Chief of Staff and several members of Congress. He told the story he had heard from his fellow soldiers, ending the letter with:

I feel that I must take some positive action on this matter. I hope that you will launch an investigation immediately and keep me informed of your progress. If you cannot, then I don’t know what other course of action to take.

General William Westmoreland, who also received a copy of the letter, was appalled at its content and immediately ordered an investigation. Calley was told to return immediately to the USA and was subsequently charged with 109 counts of murder, well below the actual numbers who had died. However, it would be another two months before the American public heard the full extent of the atrocity. In 1969, an investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh, broke the news. Already horrified by news that had been leaking through about the horrors of the Vietnam War, hundreds of other witnesses were eventually called to the stand. The charges included murder, rape, sodomy and general mayhem. Investigators suggested that there should be a further 30 prosecutions for the atrocities and another 30 for the cover up that went on after the event. Even though the US army was already under intense pressure for its conduct in Vietnam, only one man was every prosecuted, the unit’s commander, William Calley. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but he was released in 1974 after many appeals.

In many ways the My Lai massacre represented a major turning point in the public’s attitude towards Vietnam. Not only were they horrified when the images were released but they were also appalled at the way the prosecutions were handled. It was evident that the army wanted to downplay the event and the punishment given to the scapegoat, Calley, never really matched the magnitude of the crime.

Ireland: Bloody Sunday

1972

The term ‘Bloody Sunday’ has been used to describe an incident that occurred on 30 January, 1972 in Londonderry, Northern Ireland – and bloody it was. Londonderry, itself, is an old city that is famous for its resistance over the years to various sieges. However, today it bears the scars of sectarian violence.

On the morning of Bloody Sunday, a number of paratroopers were bussed into Londonderry as they expected rioting. They were told to arrest any troublemakers and the paratroopers knew there was a possibility they could be shot at by snipers.

On the afternoon of 30 January, a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) march had been planned in protest against the continuation of internment without trial in Northern Ireland. It is estimated that between 10,000 and 20,000 men, women and children took part in the march and, at the onset, the participants were in high spirits. The planned route of the march should have taken them past the guildhall, but they were prevented from entering the city centre by members of the 1st Batallion of the British Parachute Regiment. The main body of the march then proceeded towards a place called Free Derry Corner. However, a small group of teenagers broke away from the main march and goaded the soldiers by constantly pushing the barriers, shouting insults and throwing stones at them. The soldiers’ response at this time was to use a water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets to try and disperse the troublemakers, but it wasn’t long before matters deteriorated rapidly.

At 16.10 p.m. the paratroopers were given orders to move in and arrest as many civil rights marchers as possible. They advanced down Rossville Street into the Bogside, but what happened next is still uncertain. It is alleged that at some point in the proceedings the British command centre had received instructions that there was an IRA sniper in the area, and the paratroopers were given instructions to use live ammunition. They placed snipers on the city walls above the Bogside and started to shoot unarmed civilians. John Duddy, the first man to be killed, was actually running away from the troops when he was shot in the back.

Aggression against the British troops escalated at this point and, despite a ceasefire from headquarters, the soldiers fired over 100 rounds directly into the fleeing crowds. During the next 30 minutes the British soldiers killed 13 men and injured a further 13, mainly by single shots to the head and trunk. Another man died from his wounds after being admitted to hospital, bringing the total dead to 14.

WITNESS REPORTS

The picture of Father Daly waving a blood-stained handkerchief was captured on film by a BBC cameraman and appeared on the front pages of the national press. The 39-year-old curate from St Eugene’s Cathedral in Londonderry joined the march as it passed by his cathedral, just after he had finished conducting a funeral. He was standing close to 17-year-old John ‘Jackie’ Duddy when he was shot. Father Daly and other members of the march tried to help him, but realised that they needed to get him to a hospital. They decided to make a dash for it, and Father Daly ran in front with his blood-stained handkerchief in his hand while some other men carried John behind him. The soldiers were firing everywhere and the men were frightened, particularly as they were all unarmed. Father Daly gave the last rites to many of the dead and severely injured on Bloody Sunday. John Duddy unfortunately died while the men were trying to carry him to safety.

Although the soldiers responsible for the shootings insisted that they had come under sustained gun attack from members of the IRA, evidence from witnesses ran to the contrary. All the eyewitnesses, apart from the soldiers themselves, who included marchers, local residents and journalists, all confirmed that the soldiers had fired into an unarmed crowd who were in fact running away from them. Even people who had stopped to help the wounded were shot at. No British soldier was wounded by gunfire, and there was no proof whatsoever that they had been fired on by anyone. In the aftermath, irate crowds burned down the British Embassy in Dublin on 2 February, 1972, and Anglo-Irish relations hit an all-time low.

The shock and anger caused by the events on that day was responsible for provoking many young Catholic men to enlist in the IRA and join in the fight to try and end British control.

FIRST
 
INQUIRY

As soon as the British government learned of the killings, they appointed Lord Widgery, who was Lord Chief Justice at that time, to open an inquiry into the events of that day. The Irish people were wary about the impartiality of Widgery, and even more sceptical when he decided to hold the Tribunal in Coleraine, which was about 51 km (32 miles) away from scene of the killings. Some considered boycotting the inquiry, when they learned that many key witnesses, including some of those who had been wounded on that Sunday, were not even to be called to take part in the Tribunal. Widgery’s report, which was issued less than three months after the event, exonerated the British soldiers, stating that they were justified in using live ammunition as there was a strong suspicion that some of the people killed had been firing weapons or handling nail bombs. There was nothing to back up his report, and further forensic evidence proved that any trace of explosives on the clothes of 11 of those killed was negative. The clothes of the remaining men could not be tested as, for some unexplainable reason, they had already been washed.

SAVILLE
 
INQUIRY

After considerable pressure to reopen the inquiry, on 29 January, 1998, Tony Blair, then British Prime Minister, announced there would be a new investigation under the chairmanship of Lord Saville. The ensuing inquiry, which ran between March 2000 and January 2005, turned out to be one of the longest and most expensive in British legal history. The new inquiry was the result of the frustration of the relatives of those killed and injured on Bloody Sunday, claiming that the first tribunal had been a ‘whitewash’.

Because a number of soldiers felt their lives would be in danger if they had to testify in Ireland, the inquiry was moved to London. There were disruptions right from the start of the inquiry, when a number of police officers told the tribunal that they would only testify from beind screens in order to protect their identity.

Colonel Derek Wilford, who was the officer in charge of the Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday, never wavered in his testimony that his soldiers were fired on first. However, he did go on to say that the regiment had disobeyed his orders by driving deep into the Bogside in a number of armoured cars.

By the time the inquiry retired to study its findings, it had cost a total of £155 million and interviewed over 900 witnesses, including leading politicians, civilians, policemen, soldiers and members of the IRA. Even Sir Edward Heath, the prime minister at that time, was called to take the stand.

However, vital helicopter video footage and army photographs were never made available to the inquiry and, on top of this, guns used on the day by the British soldiers, which should have been produced as evidence, have since been destroyed. Because of the enormous amount of information to be studied, the Saville inquiry has not published its report to date. Christopher Clarke QC, counsel to the inquiry, said that he hoped the proceedings had played a part in enabling people to come to terms with the events of the day, but some people feel that it raised more ghosts than it put to rest.