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Post by Admin on Jul 11, 2014 22:49:19 GMT
Cho Myung-ja ran away from home as a teenager to escape a father who beat her, finding her way to the red light district in a South Korean town that hosts a large U.S. Army garrison. After she escaped home in the early 1960s, her pimp sold her to one of the brothels allowed by the government to serve American soldiers. "It was a hard life and we got sick," Cho, 76, said in an interview in her cluttered room in a shack outside Camp Humphreys, a busy U.S. military garrison in the town of Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul. On June 25, sixty-four years after the Korean War broke out, Cho joined 122 surviving comfort women, as they were called, in a lawsuit against their government to reclaim, they say, human dignity and proper compensation. The suit comes as an embarrassing distraction for the South Korean government, which has pushed Japan to properly atone for what it says were World War Two atrocities including forcing women, many of them Korean, to serve as sex slaves for its soldiers. The women claim the South Korean government trained them and worked with pimps to run a sex trade through the 1960s and 1970s for U.S. troops, encouraged women to work as prostitutes and violated their human rights. The suit was lodged with the Seoul Central District Court and Reuters has seen the document laying out the accusations against the government and a demand for 10 million won ($9,800) in compensation per plaintiff. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family declined to comment on the lawsuit. The U.S. military in South Korea said it was aware of reports of the lawsuit. The South Korean government was desperate to keep U.S. troops in the 1960s after a devastating but inconclusive war with North Korea and wanted the women to serve as "patriots" and "civilian diplomats". The virtuous-sounding titles did little to reflect the life they led. They say they were forced by the South Korean government to undergo degrading checkups for sexually transmitted diseases and if the test was positive, locked up until they were "fit" to work. "To make sure we didn't pass on some disease to foreigners, we were tested twice a week, and if it looked abnormal, we would be locked up on the fourth floor, unlocking the door only at meal times, and some people broke their legs trying to escape," Cho said amid the frequent hum of military aircraft. Afterwards, they say they were neglected and forgotten, left to live out their lives in poverty, stigmatized for having worked as prostitutes. The lawsuit is a culmination of work by a handful of small and regional NGOs that came together in 2008 to gather their testimonies and seek legal advice.This week, an opposition member of parliament led a group of 10 liberal lawmakers to introduce a bill calling for a probe into the program, formal recognition for the contribution made by the women and financial compensation. Hundreds of former prostitutes continue to live clustered around military bases in South Korea, many of them ill and poor, without family and financially unable to move. Working through the 1960s and 1970s, the women say they were treated as commodities used to boost a post-war economy. They say the government, at the time a heavy-handed military dictatorship, ran classes for them in etiquette and praised them for earning dollars when South Korea was poor. "They say we were patriots at the time, but now they couldn't care less," said another former prostitute, Kim Sook-ja, 70. "We didn't fight with guns or bayonets but we worked for the country and earned dollars."
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Post by Admin on Jul 13, 2014 22:51:32 GMT
Cho Myung-ja ran away from home as a teenager to escape a father who beat her, finding her way to the red light district in a South Korean town that hosts a large US Army garrison. After she escaped home in the early 1960s, her pimp sold her to one of the brothels allowed by the government to serve American soldiers. "It was a hard life and we got sick," Cho, 76, said in an interview in her cluttered room in a shack outside Camp Humphreys, a busy US military garrison in the town of Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul. On June 25, sixty-four years after the Korean War broke out, Cho joined 122 surviving comfort women, as they were called, in a lawsuit against their government to reclaim, they say, human dignity and proper compensation. The suit comes as an embarrassing distraction for the South Korean government, which has pushed Japan to properly atone for what it says were World War II atrocities including forcing women, many of them Korean, to serve as sex slaves for its soldiers. The women claim the South Korean government trained them and worked with pimps to run a sex trade through the 1960s and 1970s for US troops, encouraged women to work as prostitutes and violated their human rights. The suit was lodged with the Seoul Central District Court and Reuters has seen the document laying out the accusations against the government and a demand for 10 million won ($9,800) in compensation per plaintiff. The ministry of gender equality and family declined to comment on the lawsuit. The US military in South Korea said it was aware of reports of the lawsuit. "USFK has a zero tolerance for prostitution and human trafficking," a US forces in Korea spokesman said in response to a request for comment. "Prostitution and human trafficking are cruel, demeaning and incompatible with our military core values." The South Korean government was desperate to keep US troops in the 1960s after a devastating but inconclusive war with North Korea and wanted the women to serve as "patriots" and "civilian diplomats". The virtuous-sounding titles did little to reflect the life they led. They say they were forced by the South Korean government to undergo degrading checkups for sexually transmitted diseases and if the test was positive, locked up until they were "fit" to work. "To make sure we didn't pass on some disease to foreigners, we were tested twice a week, and if it looked abnormal, we would be locked up on the fourth floor, unlocking the door only at meal times, and some people broke their legs trying to escape," Cho said amid the frequent hum of military aircraft. Afterwards, they say they were neglected and forgotten, left to live out their lives in poverty, stigmatized for having worked as prostitutes. The lawsuit is a culmination of work by a handful of small and regional NGOs that came together in 2008 to gather their testimonies and seek legal advice. Hundreds of former prostitutes continue to live clustered around military bases in South Korea, many of them ill and poor, without family and financially unable to move. Working through the 1960s and 1970s, the women say they were treated as commodities used to boost a post-war economy. They say the government, at the time a heavy-handed military dictatorship, ran classes for them in etiquette and praised them for earning dollars when South Korea was poor. "They say we were patriots at the time, but now they couldn't care less," said another former prostitute, Kim Sook-ja, 70. "We didn't fight with guns or bayonets but we worked for the country and earned dollars."
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Post by Admin on Jul 17, 2014 21:40:25 GMT
The UN Human Rights Committee Wednesday raised its concerns and questions on the issue of "comfort women" during its consideration of the sixth periodic report of Japan on its implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The two-day consideration of Japan's implementation of this vital human rights covenant was concluded Wednesday afternoon, during which the World War II "comfort women" was a recurring key issue, Xinhua reported. The committee, composed of independent experts that monitors implementation of the covenant, said the system of institutionalised sex slavery used by the Japanese Army before and during the World War II was the most compelling example of the crime of sexual slavery and denial of justice to victims. But as the committee noted, from the 1990s, numerous reports and recommendations from UN bodies have been criticising Japan for not accepting responsibility for war crimes and international law. The committee pointed out that the sixth periodic report -- in which Japan held the view that it is not appropriate for the issue of "comfort women" to be brought up in the present review -- acknowledged that the issue was one that severely injured the honour and dignity of many women. It added that the report neither addressed Japan's legal responsibilities, nor gave information on legislative and administrative measures to provide victims of the "comfort women" system the full effective redress. The committee stressed that although the Japanese government insisted its legal responsibility and obligation towards compensation have already been settled by citing the San Francisco Peace Treaty and other bilateral agreements, there were differences in interpretation of these agreements, especially with regard to their scope and substance. The UN panel said there has been little progress in resolving the problem of "comfort women" despite the recommendations made consistently by international bodies. It drew attention to the recent review by Japanese government of the Kono Statement, an official apology made in 1993 by then chief cabinet secretary Yohei Kono who acknowledged that Japan recruited more than 200,000 young women from China, Korea and Southeast Asia and forced them to serve in military brothels during WWII. An expert with the committee said that the review discredited victims by questioning their claims of having been forcibly taken away by stating that it was not possible to confirm that these women "were forcibly recruited," which caused tremendous pain to the survived victims. The expert said that in the 1993 statement of apology, Japanese authorities committed to squarely face the historic facts and take them as lessons of history, and 20 years or so later it was the high time for Japan to take the first lesson by replacing the euphemism "comfort women" with "enforced sex slaves." As for this concern, the Japanese delegation replied that the term "sexual slaves" was not appropriate, and the forceful nature of the use of "comfort women" had been partly recognized, adding that Japan did not consider "comfort women" as a slavery issue. The committee expressed its confusion here, said it could not understand the distinction between women being forced into sexual slavery and them being used against their free will, adding that an independent international inquiry might be needed to finally clarify the matter. All parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the core human rights instrument, are obliged to submit regular reports to the committee on how the rights are being implemented. Parties must report initially one year after acceding to the covenant and then whenever the committee requests (usually every four years). The committee examines each report and addresses its concerns and recommendations to the party in the form of concluding observations.
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Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2014 21:53:19 GMT
With the recent passage of a bill introduced by state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), the Senate is seeking to bring awareness of the Korean comfort women issue into New York’s schools. Avella announced last week that his legislation calling for an amendment to include instruction on the comfort women of World War II into the state education curriculum passed the Senate and will now move on to the state Assembly. The bill mandates that the history of the Korean comfort women, who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during the war, be added to classroom education and be taught at the same time as the Holocaust and other human rights violations that have occurred throughout history. Avella, who represents a northeast Queens district with a large Korean population, said the issue involving comfort women was first brought to his attention several years ago and he has been working to bring more awareness to the issue ever since. He pointed out that many people still do not know the history of the large-scale abuse because it is not taught in schools and the Japanese government has not recognized the nation’s role in it. “We have too many situations, even today, of sex trafficking and abuse of women all across the globe,” Avella said. “We should recognize it and call it what it is: an atrocity against women.” Many members of the Korean community stood behind Avella during last Thursday’s announcement and praised his work to move the legislation on to the Assembly, which needs to pass the bill before it can become law. Christine Colligan, parent coordinator of the Korean American Parents Association of Greater New York, said this bill is the first time the comfort women issue has been officially recognized by another nation and said it is the first step to providing the victims the closure they deserve. “The human rights of children and women were heavily violated, and hopefully now all over, at any school, people will learn, just like the Holocaust,” Colligan said. “This is not just between two religions or countries. It has to be taught all over the world.” Avella said the bill does not yet have a sponsor in the Assembly, but he said he plans to bring it up during the next legislative session to push support for the curriculum change. “These are human rights issues and it’s important to speak out against them whenever they occur,” he said. “If we don’t learn from the mistakes from history, we’ll repeat them.”
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Post by Admin on Jul 24, 2014 0:22:10 GMT
A lawsuit to remove a monument to World War II sex slaves in Glendale took on a new twist this week when two former ‘comfort women’ visiting the U.S. offered declarations of support in the federal court case. Both Il-Chul Kang and Ok-Seon Lee recount how as teens, they were abducted by Japanese soldiers to work as sex slaves. Now they’re in their late 80s, sloped in shoulder and slow-moving. Outside federal court in downtown L.A., Kang said despite their condition, it was important they come to the US to show their appreciation for the Glendale monument, and others like it. "Thank you for erecting the peace monument and thank you for trying to protect the peace monument," Kang told a group of reporters, mostly from Korean-language news outlets. About a year ago, Glendale worked with local non-profit, Korean American Forum of California to install a bronze statue of a young comfort woman in a public park, becoming the first city on the West Coast to do so. In February, a group of conservative older Japanese-Americans who challenge the internationally-accepted history about comfort women sued the city, demanding the statue’s removal. A lawyer for the plaintiffs did not respond to multiple requests for comment Tuesday. But their complaint states that Glendale had overstepped into foreign affairs. Glendale’s attorney Brad Ellis on Tuesday maintained the city's right to keep the statue. "The city views this as part of its free speech rights in line with a long tradition of cities erecting statues to various and sundry historical events,” Ellis said. The plaintiffs, which include the Global Alliance for Historical Truth and two of its members, appears to hold a minority view in the U.S. Other Japanese-American groups such as the San Fernando Valley Japanese American Citizens League have disavowed the lawsuit, and Japanese-American California Rep. Mike Honda has taken a lead in calling for the Japanese government to issue an apology to comfort women. The two former comfort women will spend the week attending events in L.A., Glendale and Anaheim. Next week, they will make an East Coast tour that will include stops at monuments to comfort women in Virginia and New Jersey, and events in D.C. with supporters such as Honda. They hope to pressure the Japanese government into issuing a fresh apology – they say past apologies by government officials were less than sincere — and to make reparations to the few dozen remaining comfort women left in Korea.
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