The Kookje Daily News (Busan) asked me to write
a short opinion piece for translation on the tragic killing of
two young Korean girls by an American military vehicle. This
is the English version. Writing on this topic was delicate,
for it has aroused strong emotions on both sides. I hope the
following account maintains some balance.[postscript 20
December 2002 : although Kookje commissioned this piece,
I have been unable to find any evidence that they ran the
story (they have published earlier stories I
wrote). Ho hum ..
]
On
June 13, 2001 two 13 year old Korean girls, Shim Mi-sun and
Shin Hyo-sun, were crushed to death by an American military
vehicle. On September 11, 2000 3030 Americans were killed by
an Al Qaeda attack on the Twin Towers in New York and the
Pentagon. What do these two tragedies have in common? In some
ways, quite a lot.
Both
tragedies caused enormous national grief. Both caused an
upsurge of anger against foreigners. Both Americans and South
Koreans were sure that their tragedy was special, and outraged
that others might simply see these events as another item in
the long list of the world's troubles.
My purpose
is to write a little about the terrible killing of those two
Korean girls. As an Australian, perhaps my viewpoint is
somewhat independent.
The June
13 accident has many layers, like an onion. At the innermost
layer, two girls were killed by a vehicle. Sadly, such
occurrences are not unusual. Three hundred and fifty school
children were killed by vehicles in South Korea last year, two
hundred of them in school safety zones. This, surely, is a
national disgrace.
At the
next layer of the onion, an American military vehicle caused
this particular accident. It was a strange vehicle, which
required an observer to tell the driver where to steer. An
American military court has acquitted both the driver and the
observer of negligence. Koreans are furious that they were not
tried by a Korean court.
Thus we
have the questions of who was responsible, and who should
decide responsibility? From newspaper reports, we cannot say
whether the driver and/or the observer were negligent. We can
say that their commanding officer was guilty for allowing the
vehicle on the road. We understand that such vehicles have now
been banned from public roads, and that the officer has been
reprimanded (which will probably destroy his military career).
We do not know his name.
Who should
decide responsibility for accidents like this? The American
military insist that they must always prosecute their own
staff. This is certain to look unfair to host countries.
Following similar logic, the present American government has
refused to subject its citizens to the International Court of
Justice. There is deep anger about this, even amongst
America's closest allies. On the other hand, the South Korean
government has just negotiated a Status of Forces agreement
with the Kirghizstan government which is identical to the
American S.O.F. agreement in South Korea. The Koreans too
refuse to submit their military staff to local
justice.
The last
layer of the onion is the American military presence in South
Korea. An outside observer like me has to conclude that this
is what really drives the street protests, not the death of
those poor little girls. Should the Americans be in South
Korea? Ah, here is another very big onion which we can't
properly peel here. Many Americans in South Korea care greatly
about the country, and do all they can to help. My own view
(for what it is worth) is that the American government itself
doesn't give a damn about South Korea, except for selfish
reasons, and that most Americans could not find Korea on a
map. In some ways, that might be very good news for Korea. For
centuries, Chinese, Japanese, Mongols and Jurchens knew far
too much about Korea, and sometimes made life hell. That cruel
reality has not changed. Maybe a remote, ignorant ally like
America is the best that Korea can ever hope for. They just
have to keep those big, stupid vehicles off the
roads.
* Note on personal
names: all names in this Diary have been changed to protect the
privacy of individuals, unless stated otherwise.
"Crime and Punishment"...
copyrighted to Thor May 2002; all rights reserved
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