Time to reveal whole truth and support victims
On Wednesday, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) confirmed widespread human rights abuses and illegalities at a detention facility in Busan decades ago. It concluded that the state committed such violations by unjustly exercising governmental authority. The commission made the announcement after 15 months of investigations into the now-defunct Brothers Home, a confinement facility in the nation's largest port city, in the 1970s and 80s. It pointed out that the law enforcement authorities, including police, isolated and abused tens of thousands of adults and children by arbitrarily identifying them as vagrants, infringing on their human rights.
The TRC confirmed 675 deaths caused by abuses, 105 more than previously known. The operators of Brothers Home also chemically controlled "rebellious inmates" with psychiatric drugs. The facility reportedly detained about 38,000 people from 1975 to 1986. Central and local government officials sent as many as 4,355 people there in 1984 when former President Chun Doo-hwan's dictatorial rule was in full swing. Finally, a state agency has found the truth through an official investigation, but one can't help but lament that it came too late.
Not only did the state condone these glaring acts of abuse, such as forced labor, cruel treatment, sexual violence, death, and disappearance, but it took the lead by initiating the "social purification campaign." For example, former President Chun gave the order in October 1981 to round up beggars and investigate whether they were North Korean spies. In 1986, the Defense Security Command even used its agents as fake vagrants to ferret out suspected spies. However, when the prosecution began its probes in 1987, related agencies tried to cover up and play down such violations.
The panel recommended the government to officially apologize to the victims and their families, compensate damage, and support their healing. The government must not waste more time restoring victims' honor and compensating for their suffering. It must also uncover hidden damage through additional probes and rectify concealment and distortion by state power. That's the minimum the state can do to reflect on its past failures to protect its citizens and fulfill its duty to ensure basic human rights.
On Wednesday, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) confirmed widespread human rights abuses and illegalities at a detention facility in Busan decades ago. It concluded that the state committed such violations by unjustly exercising governmental authority. The commission made the announcement after 15 months of investigations into the now-defunct Brothers Home, a confinement facility in the nation's largest port city, in the 1970s and 80s. It pointed out that the law enforcement authorities, including police, isolated and abused tens of thousands of adults and children by arbitrarily identifying them as vagrants, infringing on their human rights.
The TRC confirmed 675 deaths caused by abuses, 105 more than previously known. The operators of Brothers Home also chemically controlled "rebellious inmates" with psychiatric drugs. The facility reportedly detained about 38,000 people from 1975 to 1986. Central and local government officials sent as many as 4,355 people there in 1984 when former President Chun Doo-hwan's dictatorial rule was in full swing. Finally, a state agency has found the truth through an official investigation, but one can't help but lament that it came too late.
Not only did the state condone these glaring acts of abuse, such as forced labor, cruel treatment, sexual violence, death, and disappearance, but it took the lead by initiating the "social purification campaign." For example, former President Chun gave the order in October 1981 to round up beggars and investigate whether they were North Korean spies. In 1986, the Defense Security Command even used its agents as fake vagrants to ferret out suspected spies. However, when the prosecution began its probes in 1987, related agencies tried to cover up and play down such violations.
The panel recommended the government to officially apologize to the victims and their families, compensate damage, and support their healing. The government must not waste more time restoring victims' honor and compensating for their suffering. It must also uncover hidden damage through additional probes and rectify concealment and distortion by state power. That's the minimum the state can do to reflect on its past failures to protect its citizens and fulfill its duty to ensure basic human rights.
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