SEOUL (UCAN): The Justice and Peace Commissions of the archdioceses of Gwangju and Daegu, South Korea, organised special Masses on May 18 to commemorate the 41st anniversary of the Gwangju Democratisation Movement in 1980, which saw hundreds of people killed. Church leaders called for an official apology for the massacre.
“The truth about the Gwangju Democratisation Movement must be fully presented to the nation, and those responsible for extreme atrocities should sincerely apologise,” Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-jung of Gwangju, said in his sermon during one Mass attended by some 300 clergy, religious and laypeople.
Archbishop Kim asked that people look back and evaluate if Koreans are living in the spirit of the movement, noting that it sowed the seeds of democracy in South Korea.
“We must be aware about the spirit of Gwangju because democracy in Korea sprouted from it. It was like the path that Jesus undertook by sacrificing his own life for us,” the archbishop added.
‘The truth about the Gwangju Democratisation Movement must be fully presented to the nation, and those responsible for extreme atrocities should sincerely apologise’
Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-jung
The Gwangju Uprising was a public pro-democracy uprising against the military dictatorship of army general, Chun Doo-hwan, that lasted from 18 to 26 May 1980, in the city of Gwangju. Chun seizdd power following the assassination of dictator, Park Chung-hee, on 26 October 1979, and ruled South Korea under martial law until 1988.
The Gwangju movement was initially waged by students of Chonnam University who were protesting martial law rule. It triggered a heavy crackdown by government forces. Many protesters were killed, injured or raped.
Enraged by the violent attacks, hundreds of people from Gwangju joined the protests and attempted to resist the aggression by robbing armories and police stations.
The military government retaliated with a brutal response and it is believed about 600 people were killed during the massacre. The regime blamed communists and their sympathisers for the rebellion.
Chun Doo-hwan stepped down from power following democratic reforms and a presidential election in 1987. He was sentenced to death in 1996 for his role in the 1980 massacre but was pardoned by then-president, Kim Young-sam.
In 2011, UNESCO listed the Archives of the 1980 Democracy Uprising, stored in Gwangju city hall as a documentary heritage, in its Memory of the World Register.
