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knocked him to the ground.<br />

Captain Bonifas, who had been watching the workers and<br />

therefore had not noticed Lieutenant Park’s warning, was subsequently<br />

beaten to death by at least five other KPA guards who used<br />

clubs and metal pipes from their vehicle as well as axes left behind by<br />

South Korean workers who had fled the scene after the attack. They<br />

also jumped on him. No one could lead the guards after Captain<br />

Bonifas had been attacked. The mobile strike force that was just 600<br />

metres away and was constantly on the alert could not even move since<br />

the fighting lasted only three-four minutes. In the fighting, Lieutenant<br />

Barrett was also killed. His body was found in the forest 50 metres to<br />

the east of Checkpoint 3. 233<br />

The incident was recorded by a movie camera from UNC<br />

Checkpoint 5 by a US corporal dispatched to be prepared in case<br />

something were to happen. It was suddenly stopped when, at about<br />

11.07 a.m., a UNC truck driver drove his truck over Captain Bonifas’s<br />

body to protect him from further attacks. Subsequently, the guards<br />

who had previously tried to disengage but were continuously attacked<br />

and surrounded by North Korean guards scattered from the area. Ten<br />

US and South Korean guards were injured in the fighting with North<br />

Korean guards, five of whom five were injured. The guards carried<br />

pistols in accordance with the agreed rules but no firearms were used.<br />

As Hong Seuk-Ryul (2003) points out, if firearms had been used, the<br />

situation could have become worse.<br />

233_ Chang, ibid., p. 108; Downs, ibid., p. 152; Hong, ibid., 2003, pp. 65-6; Kirkbride,<br />

ibid., pp. 30-31; Lee, op. cit., 2001(a), pp. 56-7; Yoon, “Managing the Korean<br />

Crisis: A Case Study of the Panmunjom Axe Murder Incident of 1976,” Korea<br />

Observer 31 (Winter 2000), no. 4, p. 642.<br />

296 Peace-keeping in the Korean Peninsula

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