윤상원의 사인에 대하여 = On the Cause of Death of Yun Sang Won: Focused on the burn, stab, and gunshot in his body

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The main purpose of this paper is to establish firmly Yun`s death by gunshot, as many testimonies have told, and to refute the theory that he committed suicide. The theory of Yun`s suicide can be traced back to the document ‘Profiles of participants in the Kwangju Revolt’, that was made by the Army Security Command in June 1980. The document insisted Yun had burned himself, pouring down a can of gasoline onto himself in the auditorium of the Provincial Hall, on May 27, 1980. Nowadays some propagandists, following up the suicide theory, insist that Yun was not shot by the soldiers, but died by himself exploding a grenade. But the suicide theory is lacking in proofs and common sense. - Yun wouldn`t have wanted to commit suicide with a grenade because it would have endangered the friends around him in the auditorium. - Yun had no grenade on the night of May 26. All grenades and bombs were made inexplosive by a military technician, who sneaked into the armory on the night of May 25. - If there had been a grenade explosion, Yun`s body should be scattered, or should have some fragments of the bomb. But his body was not scattered, and had not fragments. So the suicide theory isn`t valid. Doctors and prosecutors made the death certificate of Yun Sang Won in the afternoon of May 27, 1980. They wrote that Yun`s cause of death were third-degree burns, followed by a stab made by something sharp. Then, why did they omit the gunshot wound by M16 rifle? I have introduced the testimony of five persons, who saw Yun`s last moment. They witnessed Yun`s death by the paratroopers`s gunfire in the auditorium, before 5a.m. that morning. Yun got the bullets in his gut, at the right below abdomen. Lee Yang Hyun said Yun fell down on the floor shortly after being shot, and fell into a coma, showing no response to outer stimuli. Yun`s body, lying in the floor, was wrapped in a blanket by his nearby friends, and it caught on fire a little later. It might be ignited by a (stun or apple) grenades thrown by soldiers. All of Yun`s friends were captured, and were taken from the auditorium by 5 o`clock. Yun`s body was left behind, and a group of soldiers entered the auditorium. Then the stab occurred at the right below abdomen of Yun`s body. The stab was at the same place as the gunshot. The stab was wide enough to conceal the gunshot wound. So doctors and prosecutors, who made the death certificate, didn`t notice the gunshot wound in Yun`s body, but only saw a wide and deep stab wound. But a doctor didn`t deny a possibility of precedent death cause before burn and stab. Doctors, who participated in examining the corpse, watched them with bare eyes, and filled the certificate forms, at the rear garden of the Provincial Hall where more than 15 corpses awaited doctor`s examination. Doctors didn`t cut up the body with knives to find the first cause of Yun`s death. There is additional evidence of a gunshot wound before burning or stabbing. That is found in two photographs by Norman Thorpe and by Robert Moyer. In the photographs, Yun is lying straight on the floor with his left eye open and with his legs twisted. That is how his friends had positioned him, when they wrapped his body in a blanket after he was shot. If a third-degree burn, followed by stab, had been the first causes of Yun`s death, could he have stayed in this straight posture with one eye open, enduring the fierce flame of the fire? It is impossible. The fire was strong enough to make the blanket totally ash heap, and left scorched 3 square meters of the floor. If he was alive after being shot until the fire attacked him, he would have twisted or rolled around on the floor, because of intolerable hotness of the fire. The photos witnessed that Yun was completely dead before a flame of fire, ignited by soldiers, engulfed him. So it is not reasonable that Yun committed suicide, by gasoline or grenade, after his friends left the auditorium. A problem is left to be answered: Why did the stab occur in Yun`s body after being shot? There are two possibilities. One is that the stab occurred by accident, in attacking the auditorium. Soldiers entered the room, throwing (stun) grenades, reached Yun`s body, and tested, by something sharp, whether Yun was alive or dead. This supposition is supported by the fact that other examples of stab after gunshot were rarely found except Yun`s case. Another possibility is that the stabbing occurred to retaliate against Yun. Yun was an important target of the special troops attacking the Provincial Hall. This fact can be watched at a military meeting in the K57 air base, held about 12 hours before the attack. In the meeting, maps of every floor in the Provincial Hall were presented, and the targets of attack were selected. At the time, Yun might have become one of the targets to capture or shoot. The document ‘Profiles of participants in the Kwangju Revolt’, pointed out Yun as a dangerous person, who devoted himself to organizing a civil rebellion, calling Kwangju Revolt a Righteous Uprising at the foreign press interview in the afternoon of May 26, organized anti-government rallies, made students an armed force to refuse disarmament, and announced they would fight against the Martial Law Army to the last one.

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