1951년 거창사건 형사재판의 검토

Abstract

In February of 1951, the Korean Army massacred unarmed villagers in

Kochang county. Such killings were not confined to Kochang area because the

Army occasionally abused its power in the name of anti-guerilla combat. The

uniqueness of Kochang massacre was that only this massacre were exposed to

the public, and prosecuted at the Military Tribunal. Some of key figures were

found guilty, and sentenced to imprisonment.

In this paper, I focus on how the trial could be realized, and how its effect

were. I could happily gather the primary documents from National Assembly to

Military Tribunal, and compiled newspaper materials. Based on such documents,

I tried to describe full contents on the case.

One of my interest in this study was the comparison of truth-finding

competence between the political body and the judiciary. The National Assembly

started to reveal the tragedy, and established the hearing committee. But,

National Assembly could not overcome the concealment of the military. On the

other hand, the judiciary, albeit in the form of the military tribunal, could reveal

how the military falsified its involvement, and fabricated the operation document

itself. This implies that the truth-finding by the judiciary could play a vital role

in truth-finding.

The contribution of Kochang Case to Korean society was that any wartime

massacre didn't happen after Kochang Case were revealed. The expose and trial

of massacre became the bulwark against the abuse of power. Of course, this trial

were criticized in many aspects, but any criticism cannot neglect the necessity

and importance of the trial itself.