「光州事件」４０年、韓国の癒えない傷

【光州ＡＦＰ＝時事】チェ・ジョンジャさんが夫の姿を最後に見たのは、40年前だ。夫は、韓国南部・光州で民主化を求める民衆のデモを戒厳軍が武力鎮圧した「光州事件」のさなかに行方が分からなくなった。数百人が犠牲になったとされるこの事件は、今なお韓国の政治精神に傷跡を残している。（写真は光州の自宅で、「光州事件」の際に行方不明になった父親の唯一残った写真を見せるチェさんの息子）
　１９８０年５月１８日、全斗煥（チョン・ドゥファン）将軍が率いた軍事クーデターと厳戒令の布告に抗議するデモ隊が、軍と衝突。１０日間にわたり暴力が吹き荒れた。
　韓国の保守派は今も、「光州事件」を北朝鮮の支援を受けた共産主義者の反乱だったと非難している。
　当時４３歳だったチェさんの夫は、家族で営んでいた居酒屋の暖房用の灯油を買うため出掛けたきり、帰ってこなかった。民衆蜂起が鎮圧された後、チェさんは必死に夫を捜した。
　光州市内の道端には、血まみれの韓国国旗に覆われたひつぎがたくさん置かれていた。チェさんは端からひつぎを開けて中を確認したが、「３つ目のひつぎを開けた後は続けられなかった」とＡＦＰに語った。「顔はみんな血だらけで…誰なのか見分けも付かない状態だった」
　チェさんはトラウマ（心的外傷）を抱え、今日に至るまで薬を飲み続けている。テレビに全斗煥氏の姿が映るたび、ののしらずにはいられないという。
　「光州事件」の正確な死者数は分かっていない。遺体はひそかに土に埋められたり、海に捨てられたりしたと報じられている。事件後、大統領に就任し８年にわたって権力を保持した全斗煥氏と軍部には、証拠を破棄隠滅する機会は幾らでもあった。
　韓国政府が公式に認めた事件の死者は兵士や警官を含めて約１６０人、行方不明者は７０人以上。だが、実際はこの３倍もの人々が犠牲になったと言われている。
　全斗煥氏は１９９６年、「光州事件」でのクーデターや収賄などの責任を問われ、死刑判決を受けた。しかし、後に減刑され、さらに大統領恩赦で釈放された。同氏は今も、民衆蜂起の武装鎮圧への直接関与を否定している。
　学生時代に軍事独裁政権への抗議活動に参加した経歴を持つ左派の文在寅（ムン・ジェイン）大統領は、「光州事件」の真相究明と憲法への明記を約束している。野党勢力は文氏やリベラル派に北朝鮮寄りとのレッテルを貼ろうと試みており、独デュースブルク・エッセン大学の専門家ハンネス・モスラー氏は、「光州事件」をめぐる「フェイク」が韓国政治の二極化に「油を注ぐ」と警鐘を鳴らす。
　光州では昨年、刑務所跡地から約４０人分の遺体が見つかった。「光州事件」の行方不明者の家族や親族２４２人がＤＮＡサンプルを提供し、遺体の身元判明に望みをかけている。チャ・チョガンさん（８１）もその一人だ。
　当時１９歳だったチャさんの息子はニンニクを売りに市場へ向かい、それきり戻らなかった。夫は、自分が死ぬ前に息子の遺骨を埋葬することを願いながら、３年前に亡くなった。「私の最後の願いも同じ。でも、実現するかは分からない」とチャさんは語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/05/19-13:06）

It is 40 years since Choi Jung-ja saw her husband, who has been missing since South Korea's military dictatorship killed hundreds of people when they crushed the pro-democracy Gwangju Uprising, a scar that burns in the country's political psyche to this day.
On May 18, 1980 demonstrators protesting against dictator Chun Doo-hwan's declaration of martial law confronted his troops and 10 days of violence ensued.
But conservatives in the South still condemn the uprising as a Communist-inspired rebellion backed by the North, while left-leaning President Moon Jae-in wants to enshrine it in the constitution.
Choi's husband was 43 when he left their house in the southern city to buy oil for a heater at the family pub, never to return.
Once the violence was over Choi frantically searched for him, even opening random coffins in the streets covered with blood-stained Korean flags.
I couldn't continue after opening the third coffin, she told AFP. The faces were covered with blood -- there were no words to describe them. The faces were unrecognisable.
She still takes medication to deal with the trauma, she said, and curses whenever Chun appears on television.
- 'Fuel for the fire' -
There is no agreed toll for Gwangju, with reports of secret burials both on land and at sea. The military remaining in power for another eight years offered ample opportunity to dispose of the evidence.
Official bodies point to around 160 dead -- including some soldiers and police -- and more than 70 missing. Activists say up to three times as many may have been killed.
But the search for justice has gone through multiple twists and turns and Gwangju is one of the most politicised historical events in a viciously polarised country.
The South is still technically at war with the nuclear-armed North. At the time of the uprising, Chun's military regime described it as a rebellion led by supporters of then-opposition leader Kim Dae-jung, who comes from the Gwangju area, and pro-Pyongyang agitators.
Kim was arrested, convicted of sedition and sentenced to death. But the penalty was commuted under international pressure and he was granted asylum in the US, before being elected president himself in the 1990s after the restoration of democracy and winning the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize.
Chun was convicted in 1996 of treason over Gwangju and bribery and condemned to hang, but his execution was commuted on appeal and he was released following a presidential pardon. He still denies any direct involvement in the suppression of the uprising.
Today, the South's president Moon -- who as a student took part in other anti-dictatorship protests -- regularly highlights Gwangju, promising to reopen investigations into it and calling for it to be included in the constitution.
South Korea's opposition seeks to paint Moon as a Pyongyang sympathiser, and Hannes Mosler of the University of Duisburg-Essen said the right sought to use Gwangju to discredit liberals by linking them to the absolute evil of the North.
North Korea lies at the heart of polarisation strategies in South Korea, Mosler told AFP.
Once a fake narrative is built around the Gwangju Uprising that connects it with North Korea, this provides the fuel for the polarisation fire to burn further and further.
Moon's Democratic Party won a landslide election victory last month largely on the back of the government's successful handling of the coronavirus epidemic in the country.
But while the city of Daegu was at the centre of the outbreak, it is the last stronghold of the right and Moon's party lost every one of the seats there.
- Last wish -
Last year the remains of around 40 people were discovered at the site of a former prison in Gwangju, where 242 relatives of missing people have given DNA samples in the hope of identifying corpses that have yet to come to light.
Among them is Cha Cho-gang, 81, whose son never returned after setting out to sell garlic at a market in the city, aged 19.
My husband died three years ago, she said. His last wish was to bury our son's remains before his own funeral.
I have the same wish, but I don't know if it will ever come true.