‘Suspicious deaths’ here refers to the deaths suspected of having been incurred by state violence. The suspicious deaths-related truth finding movement is currently faced with the aporia that it must uncover truth on suspicious deaths through the ...
‘Suspicious deaths’ here refers to the deaths suspected of having been incurred by state violence. The suspicious deaths-related truth finding movement is currently faced with the aporia that it must uncover truth on suspicious deaths through the laws and state apparatuses under the political and social conditions which function to block access to the truth of the deaths. But it is precisely this aporia which renders important the critical work of investigating and finding the conditions under which state apparatuses will eventually help to make the finding of the truth of suspicious deaths possible.
The aim of this study is to reconstruct from the perspective of the ‘politics of mourning’ the experience of failure the truth discovery movement has faced in recent South Korea, so that the conditions enabling the finding of the truth concerning the suspicious deaths caused by state violence may be further explored. In doing so, this study also explores how ‘all of us’, belonging to the next generation, may inherit the related tasks bequeathed to us by the generation of the bereaved families who have so far contributed to keeping the issue of suspicious deaths alive. ‘Politics of mourning’ implies the practices of the ‘survivors’ who will be faithful to the dead by appealing and urging the state and society to uncover truth about suspicious deaths and realize social justice.
Chapter 1 investigates how the definition of suspicious deaths by the Special Act on Finding Truth on Suspicious Deaths as ‘deaths related to democratization movement’ has affected the effects of the related laws in their administration by the state apparatuses. It shows that the requirement that suspicious deaths be related to the democratization movement resulted in diluting and distorting in various ways the aspect of state violence which is the essence of suspicious deaths as a case of justice. In addition, it has weakened the motive power of the truth movement as it caused differences and divisions between the bereaved families whose causes are directly related to the democratization movement and those that are not.
In Chapter 2, this study sees in the ‘politics of mourning’ of the truth movement the source of power which made it possible to open up the possibility of truth-finding on suspicious deaths even in the difficult political and social conditions that blocked access to the truth of suspicious deaths. The chapter introduces various subjects of the truth movement, including the bereaved families who became righteous through conjuring up their dead offsprings and making them alive through their struggles for truth-finding, the members of the memorial-commemoration group who joined the truth movement with the vow made before the dead, the activists in various civil organizations who became involved in the liquidation of the past, documentary film directors, and others.
Chapter 3 adopts the concept of ‘excessive politicalization of mourning’ to interpret the internal conflicts and divisions within the truth movement as its members took different attitudes towards the state apparatuses. In dealing with the state apparatuses, Korea Association of Bereaved Families for Democracy has been divided into two groups, some members of the memorial-commemoration group appearing to have lost their truth-finding goals. Civic groups have become hostile to one another and the civilian investigation committee has collapsed as civilian investigators have become bureaucratized. Seen from an ethical perspective, it was the result of the truth-finding subjects having abandoned not only the loyalty to their deads but also the mutual friendship among themselves, even though they have fought together as comrades.
In Chapter 4, this study explores the possibility of constituting the subject of mourning among the 'next' generation and the conditions under which truth-finding on suspicious deaths may be performed by the state apparatuses. Whether we want it or not, we the humanity have no other choice but to take on the task of finding truth on suspicious deaths unsolved by the generation of bereaved families, for it is a command unconditionally inherited from the past. If we see truth-finding on suspicious deaths as a matter of our right to life, our attitudes and methods to solving the question of suspicious deaths may become different. To seek and realize so-called ‘politics of civilité’ as an effort to reform the agencies of state power that had incurred suspicious deaths, to democratize and civilize the state can be the essential part of the truth movement in which we can choose to participate for ourselves as the ‘next generation’ subject of mourning.
This study concludes that fact-finding on suspicious deaths by state apparatuses is impossible but can be made possible only when keeping our own right to life and making conditions that facilitate the future clarification of truth on suspicious deaths by state apparatus are combined into one and same task. The possible conditions for making the laws and state apparatuses solve the suspicious death issue in a more righteous way must depend on how ‘politics of mourning’ will be developed in the next generation.