A government commission has been investigating claims that government forces, with US help, murdered "tens of thousands of South Korean detainees" during the war there between 1950 to 1953. A number of mass graves have been uncovered over the years and relatives of possible victims have been pushing the government for an accounting. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established in 2005 under a liberal government that was to cover "human rights abuses from Korea's pre 1945 Japanese colonial period through South Korea's military dictatorships into the 1980". The commission has ended its investigation, as ordered by a more conservative government, and has stated that "the US military's large scale killing of refugees during the Korean War arose from military necessity". "Collateral damage may be inevitable" says the present commission chairman.
(Source: "Korean War abuse panel is shut down" by Charles J. Hanley and Hyung-Jin Kim of the AP. In The Record on 7/11/10)
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