State commission finds all Emergency Measures violated basic rights

Posted on : 2009-09-02 11:36 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Truth and Reconciliation Commission pushes for a Constitutional Court ruling on Park Chung-hee Administration’s Emergency Measures
 Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) made an announcement on Tuesday confirming that Park Chung-hee administration’s “Emergency Measures” in the 1970s constituted a grave infringement of citizens’ constitutionally guaranteed basic rights. This marks the first time the state commission has stated that all of the Emergency Measures represented the illegal and improper exercise of public authority.

The commission also said Tuesday that an analysis of 1,412 rulings on Emergency Measure-related cases revealed that 32 percent involved punishments of intellectuals, religious figures and other people involved in the democratization movement protesting Park’s Yushin System, and another 48 percent involved punishment against ordinary citizens for “spreading false rumors” in normal conversation.

The Yushin System refers to the regime under the Yushin Constitution made in 1972 which paved the way for Park to be president for life. During the same year, the Park administration created Emergency Measures to root out opposition voices against the Yushin Constitution.

According to the TRC, in 1974 a poultry breeder was sentenced to 10 years in prison for saying that Emergency Measure No. 4 was created to cover up the government’s mistake.

The Emergency Measures “restricted and took away basic rights and freedoms of the people as guaranteed in the Constitution, including freedom of speech, press, assembly and association, freedom of conscience and thought, and the principle of warrants,” the commission said. In particular, the commission cited the punishment of criticism of the Emergency Measures themselves as a “grave infringement of human rights resulting from an illegal and improper exercise of public authority that cannot be tolerated in a constitutional democracy.”

The TRC had first identified human rights infringements by investigative bodies in the Song Ki-sook and Chu Yeong-hyeon case involving individuals sentenced to prison terms for violating the Emergency Measures, and then decided to pursue an investigation of these incidents.

In 1978, Song Ki-sook, a professor of Korean literature at Chonnam University, was sentenced to four years in prison after writing an essay entitled, “Our Educational Indices,” criticizing actions that included the large-scale disciplining of students opposed to the Yushin System. “The Korean Central Intelligence Agency, which only had authority to investigate incidents such as rebellion, treason or violations of the National Security Act, exceeded the scope of its investigative authority in its investigation of the Educational Indices case,” the TRC said.

In 1974, Chu Yeong-hyeon, a journalist, was sentenced to a 12-year prison term for statements he made in connection with the Democracy Youth and Student League. “The Seoul Southern Police Station carried out an undercover investigation for one year, and it was confirmed that they used acts of violence during the investigation,” the TRC explained.

The commission made a number of recommendations to the government Tuesday, including reviews of trials in which rulings were made based on the Emergency Measures, presidential apologies, and educational programs on the perpetration of grave human rights violations through the Emergency Measures. In addition, they recommended separate legislative measures to resolve past human rights infringements brought about by the Yushin System and a Constitutional Court judgment on the constitutionality of the Emergency Measures.

These measures are significant in that they represent a judgment by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the entirety of the Park administration’s Emergency Measures and the recommendation of a restitution plan for victims to the National Assembly and courts. In a 2007 investigation of the Oh Jong-sang case, another case related to the Emergency Measures, the commission ruled that the Park administration “used the Emergency Measures as an instrument for the administration’s own security, to suppress forces opposed to the Yushin Constitution and administration.”

Lee Myeong-chun, the director of the TRC’s Bureau of Investigation on Human Rights Abuses and case investigator stated, “This time, all of the cases we were dealing with requested investigations connected to the Yushin System's Emergency Measures, and we had not choice but to mention their violation of human rights and present them at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission level.”

In the TRC’s recommendations, there are plans for restitution for victims of the Emergency Measures, a request for a ruling on their constitutionality from the Constitutional Court and a recommendation to pass separate legislative measures in the National Assembly to address damages and restore the reputations of the victims. The TRC obtained rulings on 1,412 cases in connection with the Emergency Measures, and related parties alone amounted to some 589 people.

“A review of related rulings is only possible after the Constitutional Court determines whether the Emergency Measures were unconstitutional,” said Park Sang-hoon, a lawyer and commission member. “The Constitutional Court’s ruling of unconstitutionality symbolizes a key act of restitution for victims of the Emergency Measures,” he explained.

“In order to make a strong case for an unconstitutional ruling, we emphasized that the Emergency Measures violated citizens’ constitutionally guaranteed basic rights,” Park added.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

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