IN A trial watched nervously by Asian leaders kept in power by military force, South Korean prosecutors yesterday demanded the death sentence for Mr Chun Doo-hwan. The former president is accused of orchestrating the 1980 Kwangju massacre, in which 200 pro-democracy marchers died.
As protesters outside a court in Seoul chanted "death to the slaughterers," the prosecution asked a panel of judges to order the execution of Mr Chun and life imprisonment for his fellow defendant and successor as president, Mr Rob Tae-woo. The public gallery burst into thunderous applause.
Mr Chun and Mr Rob, both retired four-star generals, have been on trial since December on charges of bribery, sedition and treason.
"It is the duty of our generation to settle the legacies of a wrongful past," said the senior prosecutor, Mr Kim Sang-bee.
Mr Chun, military strongman from 1980 to 1988, dismissed the proceedings in a final statement as a show trial: "However powerful those in power are, history cannot be tailored in their own way. . .I hope I am the last to stand political trial."
Executions are rare in South Korea and the political passions surrounding the trial make it unlikely that any death sentence will be carried out.
The prosecution also demanded prison terms ranging from 10 years to life for 14 disgraced senior military officials who were involved in the December 1979 coup and the massacre of demonstrators in the southern city of Kwangju five months later.
Mr Chun and Mr Rob have been on trial since last December as part of President Kim Youngsam's campaign to "put history to rights".
Mr Kim Young-sam, the first president without a military background in three decades, has been riding on a national wave of revulsion against the corrupt excesses of his military-backed predecessors.
Mr Rob apologised for "causing controversy", but said he did his best in his time, when "wrong practices" were commonplace.
He was arrested last November on bribery charges after confessing that he amassed a slush fund of £400 million from business tycoons during his presidency. He was later charged with treason and sedition.
Mr Chun was arrested the following month on charges of masterminding the December 1979 coup. He was also charged with sedition for the May 1980 army massacre and with accepting hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes from businessmen.
The two former presidents deny the mutiny and treason charges, saying their actions were taken to avoid chaos, which could have resulted in a North Korean invasion.