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We request your URGENT intervention regarding an incident of gross human rights violation in South Korea.

Brief description of the incident:

The Presidential Truth Commission on Suspicious Deaths (PTCSD) recently announced its findings on Park Young-Do, a person who was found dead at Chung Song Correctional Center in 1984, that he had been tortured to death by the prison guards.

According to the report of the Commission, Park had been forcefully taken to Sahm Chung Training Camp (a detention camp set up by former president Chun Do-hwan to arbitrarily put the social “scum” behind bars with the excuse of restoring public order) in August, 1980 by the Martial Law Command Squad for his previous criminal records as a street gangster. Without a proper trial, he was first sentenced to a 4 week forced training in the camp by a military ad-hoc committee called Separate Review Committee. Since then, he was continuously subjected to arbitrary detentions and harassment up until his death in 1984.

Arbitrary detentions and ill treatment

After having served his 6 month term of sentence, which was extended from the initial 4 week term, at Sahm Chung Training Camp, Park was sentenced to another 2 years in the Center for Protective Custody, a special detention facility set up according to the Law for Protected Society, from the Committee for Protected Society on January 16, 1981, in light of Article 5 of the Supplementary Provisions to the Law for Protected Society, which states that a person of high tendency to recommit acts of violence could be put under the preventive custody for a period prescribed in Article 5, paragraph 2 of the Martial Law. The Center for Preventive Custody was indeed a place where the observance of basic human rights of inmates did not exist. The inmates were subject to constant ill treatment, including ruthless beatings on a daily basis.

On October 1, 1981, Park and other inmates witnessed an act of brutality committed by a prison guard toward a 50 year-old-some inmate. They all became infuriated and started raising their voices against the prison authorities to stop the ongoing ill treatment towards the inmates. They requested to have a talk with the warden, but were denied of the request. This led to a violent confrontation between the inmates and the prison guards, in which two inmates and a soldier were killed. Park and eighteen other inmates in the leadership were put on a court martial on December 28, 1981. Park was found guilty of the charges for destruction of military equipment and a special larceny and sentenced to 15 years in prison. In March, 1983, Park was sent to the Chung Song 1st Center of Preventive Custody (current Chung Song Correctional Center).

Park, however, did not stop his resistance against the undemocratic and ruthless practices of the military authorities towards inmates even after he was transferred to the Chung Song 1st Center of Protective Custody. He along with other inmates transferred from Sahm Chung continued their protests by refusing to eat while calling for the abolishment of the Law for Preventive Custody, better treatment of all inmates, and the downfall to the Chun Do Hwan administration. When one of the inmates was violently assaulted by the prison guards and the soldiers belonging to the Special Task Force, Park and other 3 leading figures resorted to a means of prison disturbances to rebuke the brutality. As a result, Park and another inmate were put into the 7th cell, a special solitary cell designed to keep a person separate from the rest of the inmates, on December 7. The tension between the prison guards and the inmates continued to exist even until October, 1984, when Park was tortured to death.

Denial of Medical Care

On October 12, 1984, around 10:30 a.m. Park made several complaints to the prison guards that he is ill and wanted to see a doctor. A prison guard reported it to his superiors, but it fell on deaf ears. When Park continuously asked the prison guards to take him to the clinic, two prison guards Yi Jahm Sool and Park Soo Ho took him to a room located in the basement, which was usually used for interrogation. There they began to torture him, which resulted in his death.

Torture and Death

Having noticed that Park was not taken to the clinic, but rather to an interrogation room, the inmates expressed their anger by kicking the cell doors. Soon after, a group of prison guards showed up to quiet them down and took another inmate to the interrogation room. He witnessed how brutally Park had been tortured.

It is known now that the number of prison guards who tortured Park was 8 to 9. The bodies of Park and another inmate were bend backward with the hands tied to the feet with a rope. Then, a club was put between the hands and the neck (picture 1). The guards also tied Park’s arms behind the back with the elbows adjacent to each other (picture 2 and 3). In addition, the guards used a club, double-twined ropes, rubber hoses, military shoes, leather strands to beat them up. The torture continued for 2 hours. In the meantime, Park became unconscious 3 to 4 times and every time the guards woke him up by placing a cloth bag on the head and throwing

At 5:30 p.m., the guards carried him to another cell by using a stick put across the rope tied to his hands and feet. Although they removed the wooden stick, which had been put between his arms and the neck, they did let Park keep the bow-like body position. Park moaned from the pain and vomited a couple of times. However, the guards did not have Park examined by a doctor. Although the ropes had been loosen up one time, several attempts by some conscientious guards to give Park proper attention remained in vain.

Around 5:30 a.m. the next day, a guard who was on patrol noticed of Park’s immobility and reported it to the guard in charge of Park. They went into the cell and found Park dead.

Covering up the Truth

The prison authorities made a report on Park’s death the same day without having taken proper postmortem examination procedures. They put in the report the cause of death as a heart attack. Also, a public prosecutor assigned to investigate Park’s death complied with the prison authorities by ordering an autopsy of the body the next day to a local doctor just to have him assure the cause of death as a heart attack. Then they buried the body in the absence of Park’s family.

Action requested

Please write to the authorities of South Korea urging them to:

i. officially acknowledge the report of the Presidential Truth Commission on Suspicious Deaths on Park’s death and assume further governmental actions necessary to make the guilty not to go free of the guilt;

ii. become a signatory to the 1968 UN Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity and ensure prompt and impartial investigations into crimes against humanity, including Park’s case, in order to prosecute those responsible by bringing them to trial and apply the penal, civil and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;

iii. abolish the practice of illegal or arbitrary detention and put an end to the practice of torture, ill-treatment and summary execution;

iv. guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of all detainees in South Korean detention facilities at all times, and allow detainees to have immediate access to legal counsel and medical care;

v. guarantee all human rights and fundamental freedoms and conform their actions to the international standards as established in international pacts and covenants.

Addresses :

President Kim, Dae-jung

Office of the President

Seoul

Republic of Korea

Email webmaster@cwd.go.kr

Mr. Choi, Kyung-Won, Minister of Justice

Ministry of Justice

Government Complex

1 Jongahng-Dong

Kwachun City, Kyunggi Province

Republic of Korea

Fax (+ 822) 500 2125

Email jub112@moj.go.kr

Mr. Shin, Sahng Chul, Warden

Chung Song Correctional Center

55-1 Kwangduk-Ri, Jinbo-Myun

Chungsong-Goon, North Kyungshang

Republic of Korea

Email lyh2812@yahoo.co.kr

Please send a copy of your letter to BASE21 Urgent Appeals (with cc to two members in charge of the matters related to suspicious deaths Sooyun Lee azoom92@hanmail.net and H. Sarah Kim (kimsarah99@hotmail.com)):

Email:

Fax: +(822) 3927904 (Korean Council for Democratic Martyrs)

Please contact the Urgent Appeals coordinator if you require more

information or wish to report human rights violations.

BASE21 MEMBERS:

YoungMi Yang People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (www.pspd.org)

Yeara Park People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (www.pspd.org)

Young-mo Yoon Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (www.kctu.org)

Jeong-Woo Kim Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet (www.jinbo.net)

Chang Nam Lee Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet (www.jinbo.net)

Wooksik Cheong Civil Network for a Peaceful Korea (www.peacekorea.org)

Choon-Y Kim Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (www.kfem.or.kr)

Hey won Oh Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (www.kfem.or.kr)

H. Sarah Kim Presidential Truth Commission on Suspicious Deaths (www.truthfinder.go.kr)

Sooyun Lee Korean Council for Democratic Martyrs (www.yolsa.org)

Joo-young Lee Group for Human Rights (www.sarangbang.or.kr)

Shinn Kim The Resource Center for Asian NGOs (www.skhu.ac.kr)

Yu Jin Lee Green Korea (www.greenkorea.org)

Ki-Yeon Kim The Lawyers Association for Democratic Society (minbyun.jinbo.net/home.htm)

Pictures demonstrating how Park was tortured