Lion Tamer

Koje Island's new prison commandant, a first-class combat man, emerged last week as a soldier who could also use his wits in the most disagreeable of rear-area jobs. Boldly and shrewdly, Brigadier General Haydon L. Boatner had chosen Compound 76, scene of the Dodd-Colson coup, as the first to be tackled in bringing order to the prison. After the bloody battle in which Compound 76's 6,000 hard-core Communists were subdued (TIME, June 16), the other tough enclosures on Koje toppled like ninepins, with no further fighting between guards and prisoners. By week's end, some 30,000 prisoners had been moved into smaller enclosures, where they were searched and fingerprinted. During the cleanup nearly 800 anti-Communists had escaped from Communist control and were safely segregated, and more than 100 ringleaders in kangaroo-court murders had been identified, dragged out and isolated. It seemed physically impossible that any further mass rebellion could occur. Reported "Bull" Boatner: "The worst is over."

Meanwhile, the prisoner death list following the battle of Compound 76 rose to 41.* At least twelve of these were killed by last-ditch fanatics for refusing to fight or for trying to obey Boatner's orders, some were bayoneted in the trenches by U.S. paratroopers, and others died in buildings captured only after concussion grenades were tossed in. The Americans did not fire a shot, although the prisoners fought with spears, homemade swords, clubs and barbed-wire flails. Also found were maps which indicated that a Communist capture of the whole island had been planned.

Kangaroo Courts. When the order to move went to the next pen--Compound 78--the inmates, who had watched the battle of 76, lined up meekly and were taken away. Compound 77 was next, and it was here that Bull Boatner made his one tactical mistake of the week. He gave 77 a day's advance notice of the move, and the Communists inside used their last night to execute antiCommunists. After the evacuation, 16 bodies were found, hacked, beaten or strangled, tossed into water-filled ditches, jammed into metal drums, and even hidden under hut floors. Compound 77's kangaroo courts had not found all of the antiCommunists, however; 85 more broke away next day.

Boatner's paratroops moved on to Compound 95. While the prisoners were being moved, interpreters passed orders for the column to turn left, but added that anti-Communists could fall out to the right. No fewer than 400 anti-Communists turned to the right. Some of these dashed their red-starred caps to the ground.

Boatner expected some trouble from the swaggering, defiant North Korean officers of Compound 66, but after he had taken representatives from the enclosure on a tour of the blood-spattered ruins of Compound 76, the officers marched out in orderly ranks, five abreast. As a reward for obedience and a mark of respect for their rank, Boatner ordered the machine-guns on the watchtowers turned skyward during the transfer. Only one North Korean officer stepped out of ranks; he identified himself as an antiCommunist.

Pens & Runways. The new prison pens, intended to house no more than 520 men each, measure some 200 by 155 ft. and are surrounded by a double fence of barbed wire. They are arranged in groups of eight in larger enclosures, which are also fenced with double barriers of barbed wire. The large enclosures are traversed by a central barbed-wire runway, which makes it easy for guards to reach any of the smaller pens with tear gas. Constant and thorough searches, and floodlighting at night are expected to prevent the prisoners from cutting the wire and thus assembling in larger groups.

After being herded into the small pens, the battered survivors of Compound 76 had still not had enough. Three times in one day they disobeyed orders; each time they were brought to heel by tear-gas barrages. One antiCommunist, hardly more than four feet tall, seized his chance to scramble under the wire of his pen, lacerating his back but getting away just ahead of clutching Communist fingers. He said he had been sentenced to death, and he then put the finger on 102 members of kangaroo courts. These malefactors were dragged out by U.S. guards for isolation.

At week's end, like a lion tamer who disdains whip, chair and pistol, Bull Boatner entered one of the new pens and walked alone, unarmed and unmolested, among the prisoners. He had cowed the unruly Communist, and had done much to restore U.S. prestige lost by previous pampering and bungling.

* Plus one U.S. paratrooper.

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