RED MASSACRE OF CITIZENS: SEOUL REPORT

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 September 1950, Page 5

RED MASSACRE OF CITIZENS: SEOUL REPORT

TOKIO, September 29 (Rec. 1 p.m;).—Twenty-thousand persons are reported to have been killed by the Communists in Seoul, mainly for political reasons. Hundreds of citizens have testified to “a Black Sunday” massacre two weeks ago of some 2000 young men on the banks of the Han river. These people said the men, all between the ages of 18 and 25, were believed to have been members of a Rightist underground organisation. Bodies Not Found Seoul citizens said the victims were rounded up late on Saturday evening. At dawn next day they were lined up on the river bank and mowed down by machine-guns. According to the testimony, their bodies were thrown into the river, but American officers have not yet succeeded in finding any of them. Other citizens, who were known to have held public office or to have had open connection with the Rhee Government, were shot in Seoul prison. Just before the Americans entered the capital, the Communists rounded up about 20,000 persons, among them newspaper editors, lawyers and doctors, and took them away when they retreated north. Is Dean Still Alive?

A message from the Chinju front says that 87 American prisoners, who were freed’ as their North Korean guards were binding their hands to execute them, reported tonight that a North Korean doctor had told them that two days . ago Major-General William Dean was alive and in charge of a prison camp in North Korea.