U.S. Army must improve policy & training to prevent rape in South Korea

Gyung-Lan Jung – WNN Opinion

(WNN) STORY UPDATE Tuesday, November 1, 2011: The Uijeongbu District Court sentenced a 21 year old U.S. soldier Private Kevin Flippin a troop member of the U.S. Army 2nd Infantry Division located near Dogoducheon  city in South Korea to 10 years imprisonment for raping and tormenting a 16 year old South Korean girl today say court representative Lee Sang-yup. As part of the sentence, the Army private will have his personal record made available to the public for the next 10 years. He will also be required to attend 80 hours of education and counseling on sexual violence.

Preceding the court decision, a formal apology by Kurt M. Campbell, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs about the indecent was released Friday October 7 to South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan.

“I’d like to personally and on behalf of the United States government take this opportunity to apologize to the Korean people for the tragic and inexcusable rape,” said Campbell during his meeting with Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan of South Korea.

“Our sincere apologies go out again to the victim, her family and the Korean community,” said the 2nd Infantry Division in a formal statement issued following the court decision.

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(WNN) SEOUL: A teenage girl was raped by a U.S. soldier in Seoul on September 17th, 2011 and another teenage girl was heinously raped for four hours by another U.S. solider in Dongducheon, Gyunggi Province on September 24th, 2011.

Those crimes were so brutal that it called for South Korean police to detain the suspects for investigation. However, South Korean police could not arrest them because of the Status of Forces Agreement between the Republic of Korea and the U.S. (SOFA), which contains a clause stating that South Korean police cannot detain U.S. servicemen for questioning, unless the criminal was caught in the very act. In other words, this clause prevented swift investigation.

The South Korean prosecutor arrested and indicted the suspect in Dongducheon case after the irate public took the case to the streets.

U.S. military and civilian personnel have committed 4,618 crimes against South Korean civilians in the last decade since the SOFA was revised in 2001. Furthermore, serious crimes such as robbery, assault and sexual offences are on the rise.

The U.S. Army has formulated a zero tolerance policy on and claims to train inductees against sexual crimes. However, sexual violence against civilians continues to occur. However, in most cases suspects are set free after a crime actually occurs and are protected so that they avoid the hands of the law, with the U.S. Army claiming that the crime is the suspect’s personal matter and placing utmost priority on the military personnel’s safety.

The unfair SOFA makes it difficult for South Korean police to investigate suspects under custody and for the South Korean prosecution to indict. Suspects simply believe that it is best to first flee the  scene of the crime. The South Korean people are resentful and disappointed at this pattern of not being able to execute law justly in response to U.S. troops’ infringements of the human rights of civilians.

We women cannot help but doubt the very foundation of “the Strategic Partnership between ROK and the U.S. for the 21st Century”, which insisted to contribute to world peace, based on universal values  including human rights and mutual trust.

Thus, we women demand the following for the purpose of establishing a rightful South Korea-U.S. relationship that is both fair and guarantees mutual benefit.

1. We demand that President Barrack Obama immediately apologize for the vicious rapes of teenage girls by U.S. soldiers; and that the U.S. Army change its policy toward U.S. military and civilian personnel who commits crimes against South Koreans to make the policy actually effective for the purpose of preventing recurrent crimes.

2. We demand SOFA to be revised so that U.S. military personnel who commit crimes against civilians can be processed and tried under  jurisdiction of the region in which the suspect is stationed; that the South Korean police can question U.S. military personnel under custody and South Korean prosecution can indite them under custody, even for those suspects not caught in the act.

3. The SOFA should contain a provision on protecting the human rights of women and children. The SOFA also needs to stipulate the prevention of all forms of violence against women and children by U.S. troops in the region in which they are stationed; harsh punishment (harsher than existing in the penal codes of both countries) for those who commit violence against women and children; and compensation for victims better than currently practiced in both countries.

4. We women will review the problems in the SOFA and will form solidarity with both domestic and international “conscience” forces to change the unfair structure of the South Korea – U.S. relationship.
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Ms. Gyung-Lan Jung is the Chairperson of South Korea’s Women Making Peace Commission.

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