THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 14, 1995 TAG: 9504140004
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
Several weeks have passed since Dr. Chu Hon Yi and his wife Kae Wol were brutally murdered at their missionary apartment in Khavarosk, Far Eastern Russia, as reported on the front page of your newspaper (March 31).The man was beaten and the woman was strangled. The motive is not known yet, and no Russian police report is available. All we know is that they no longer share the world with us.
They are the first Americans violently killed in Russian territory, and they are the first American missionaries sacrificed on the job after the Cold War ended.
Unlike an uproar by our government in the case of two American engineers who crossed the Kwaiti-Iraqi border and thus were detained by Saddam Hussein's army, no agency of our government has shown any concern over the missionaries' violent deaths.
Whenever American lives are in danger or jeopardy in any corner of the world, remote or close, we have always stood up to protect them. We are very much disturbed at our government that stands silent this time.
We must tell our government to clearly express our disturbed concern to the Russian government in Moscow and have them disclose the truth of this tragedy, thus to ensure no American life is put at their mercy in the future.
As a close friend of the deceased couple for nearly a quarter-century right here in this town, I want to know the total truth. Until we know what has happened to them, we cannot put them at rest and put ourselves at peace.
MICHAEL M. OH
Virginia Beach, April 11, 1995 by CNB