South Korean government denies the killings and abused of vagrants ina welfare facilities that happened over three decades ago. Several survivors of the violence were saddened as nobody has been held accountable until now for the deaths and rapes.
Choi Seung-woo recount the torture he suffered from a police officer for accusing him of stealing a piece of bread. According to Star and Stripes, Choi was among the vagrants in Brothers welfare institution, one of the dozen built facilities in the year 1970s and '80s. The "vagrants" includes people without shelters, drunkards, disable people and mostly were street children wandering on the streets, are forced to be imprisoned to the said welfare facility.
The government came to roundup them, as they prepared to bid for and host the 1988 Seoul Olympics. This opportunity was seen as "international validation" of the nation as a modern country by the ruling dictators. On the investigation conducted by the Associated Press, they discovered many of the so-called "vagrants" were forcibly imprisoned in the facility and suffered violation of human rights or abused, in which their stories were not really known in the public.
The investigations also revealed that these violence and misconducts were highly covered-up by the governement, Salon reported. "Two early attempts to investigate were suppressed by senior officials who went on to thrive in high-profile jobs; one remains a senior adviser to the current ruling party," source cited.
The products made on slave labors on the facility were all sent to countries in Europe as well as in Japan. It was also believed that the family who owned Brothers welfare facility still runs other facilities as well as educational buildings until just two years ago.
Former inmates of the said institution said the South Korean government have not yet given them compensation, recognition or even an apology, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Now, the current government of the country declined to review the case as opposition lawmakers said the evidence is too old.
Meanwhile, survivors from the facility still suffer from the memories from the facility. Some of them continue their efforts to inform the public, including making a public demonstrations and holding an exhibition of paintings about the affair.
