"The Military Moved the Bodies of Citizens with a Helicopter from the Gwangju Prison on May 23, 1980" [Exclusive]

[경향신문]

- The statement of a prison guard at the time of the May 18 Democratic Uprising printed in The History of the Gwangju Prison, published by the Gwangju Prison (Underlined by the Kyunghyang Shinmun)

Investigators confirmed records of a prison guard’s statement that military soldiers who were stationed at the Gwangju Prison at the time of the May 18 Democratic Uprising in 1980 “removed the bodies with a helicopter on the afternoon of May 23.” The May 18 Democratization Movement Truth Commission held a press conference at Narakium Jeodong Building in Jung-gu, Seoul on May 12, which marked a year since the commission launched the investigation, and announced that they have yet to confirm 41 bodies of citizens who were killed by the soldiers in the Gwangju Prison alone at the time of the May 18 uprising.

According to the coverage by the Kyunghyang Shinmun this day, The History of the Gwangju Prison, which the Gwangju Prison published in 2009 and 2014, included statements of a prison guard explaining how the bodies were removed at the time of the uprising in Gwangju. This book, which describes the history of the prison, was not released to the public in the past, but was recently relocated to the National Archives of Korea.

The book described the situation and the response by the prison guards at the old Gwangju Prison, which was located in Munheung-dong, Buk-gu, Gwangju at the time of the uprising, and it included a statement described as “the record of the May 18 uprising by a retired prison guard.” However, the book does not disclose who that prison guard is.

The prison guard stated, “On the afternoon of May 23, an armored vehicle stopped in front of the main gate, and they said that two people on that vehicle were dead. A helicopter came and took the bodies of people who died like this along with the injured somewhere.”

He also said, “On May 22, agents of the security battalion came and questioned the people who were detained, and I heard that one died due to the brutality of the soldiers. The airborne troops swung their batons and beat them. We could hear the people moaning even from the prison guard rooms, and we couldn’t sleep.” The 3rd Airborne Brigade moved their post to the prison in order to lock down Gwangju on the afternoon of May 21 and were stationed there until the afternoon of May 24.

At the press conference this day, the May 18 Truth Commission explained, “We confirmed through statements that the soldiers shot civilians on at least thirteen occasions at the prison. We have yet to verify at least 41 bodies among those who died in the prison and are currently tracing them.” The Commission also believes that there are at least 55 missing bodies of civilians who died during the operation to lock down Gwangju.

More than ten bodies that were secretly buried shortly after the May 18 uprising were discovered inside and outside the Gwangju Prison. The May 18 Memorial Foundation searched five locations within the prison site to look for additional bodies since 2017, but has yet to uncover any. Kim Hee-song, a professor at the Chonnam National University May 18 Institute said, “The afternoon of May 23 was when the 3rd Airborne Brigade was preparing to withdraw through the Gwangju airfield,” and added, “The statement by the prison guard could be connected to the fact that authorities have yet to find any bodies inside the prison.”