S.Korean island erects statue commemorating Vietnamese victims of war massacres

By Nguyen Dong   April 26, 2017 | 12:04 am PT
Peace activists said around 9,000 Vietnamese civilians were killed in massacres by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War.

A bronze statue of a mother embracing a slaughtered child, cast to remember thousands of Vietnamese killed by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War, was unveiled on South Korea’s Jeju Island on Wednesday.

The Vietnam Pieta statue of a mother holding their slaughtered child. Photo by VnExpress/Phuong Thao

The "Vietnam Pieta" statue of a mother holding her slaughtered child. Photo by VnExpress/Phuong Thao

The Korean-Vietnam Peace Foundation said the statue has been named “Vietnam Pieta,” which means “The Last Lullaby” in Vietnamese, and has been placed in front of the Saint Francis Peace Center.

Korean artists unveiled a similar statue in Vietnam's Quang Ngai Province in 2016 to commemorate the massacre in December 1966 in which more than 400 Vietnamese people, many of them children, women and elderly, were killed. 

The foundation was set up with 64 members from all walks of life working to raise awareness of South Korea’s historical responsibility in the Vietnam War. 

South Korea reportedly sent more than 300,000 troops to Vietnam during the war. 

Around 9,000 Vietnamese civilians were killed during massacres in Vietnam's central provinces of Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai, according to the foundation.

Jeju, a self-governing province, has also been mourning one of the world’s most terrible massacres in which at least 12,000 people were killed by the South Korean army in April 1948. Locals claim as many as 30,000 were slaughtered.

 
 
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