A panorama of Hyung Je Bok-ji won (source: media today)
Hyung Je Bok-ji-won (lit. "Brother Welfare facility") was a welfare facility that operated in Busan, South Korea from 1975 to 1986. The facility accommodated about 4,000 persons and it is regarded as the largest sheltered accommodation for homeless people in the country. It is called the Korean version of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, because a large number of innocent and helpless people were forcibly imprisoned in the facility and suffered violation of human rights under the name of a social welfare service.
The human rights abuses were enabled by government, because the facility was running under government subsidies. During the autocratic regimes of former presidents Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan, ordinance no. 410 of the Ministry of Home Affairs ordered that those who wander from place to place without a permanent home or beg for coins in the street where many people gather should be collected as a purpose of building a clean society. Any police officer who found those people and brought them to a social welfare facility received higher marks in their next work performance evaluation. Furthermore, the government subsidized social welfare facilities to fulfill the goal. The amount of funding received was based on the number of people housed in a given facility.
Along with the mandate, Park In-geun, a director of the Hyung Je Bok-ji-won, oversaw the kidnap and confinement of many people, including people with disabilities, orphans and homeless people, under the pretense of giving them guidance. Photos of the facility predominately show men and boys, but women are reported to have been kept at the facility as well. Even a woman working at a company and young students were brought to the facility according to Kim He-gon (김희곤), a victim of the Hyung Je Bok-ji-won affair. The facility received more than 2 billion won even in 1987 when it was scheduled to be closed. Thus, the operation of the facility was closely connected with the government.
The cars were used for the purpose of abducting people (source: media today)
People in front of the car heading to Hyung Je Bok-ji-won (source: ohmynews)
Each person in the facility was referred to by their serial number, like 82-4714, instead of their real name. The serial numbers indicate the year an individual entered the facility. Countless human rights abuses, including abduction, imprisonment, forced labour, and sexual violence occurred. For example, when a person in the facility disobeyed Park’s order or tried to escape, but was caught by guards, they were flayed to death with a whip. As a result, the confirmed death toll from the facility reached 513. The actual number of deaths is believed to be higher.
Inside the facility (source: the Kyunghyang Shinmum)
People cutting rocks of mountains to build a building. 18 buildings were built over three and a half years by the people confined in the facility. Inmates were not compensated for their work. (Source: ohmynews)
The facility became known to the public in 1987 by an increasing number of people trying to escape the facility. Park, the director, was prosecuted for various human rights abuses, however he was acquitted of the charge of illegal confinement after seven trials. He was sentenced to only two and a half years for embezzlement. All inmates of the facility were released after the trial. The facility building was demolished after the facility closed, and in 1996, a large apartment complex was built on the site.
an ex-inmate of the facility holds a demonstration in front of the National Assembly building (source: the Kyunghyang Shinmum)
In Mar 22, 2014, a current affairs TV program called I want to know that (그것이 알고 싶다)’s episode 932 “27 years since the Holocaust: the truth of Hyung-je Bok-ji-won” (홀로코스트, 그리고 27년 – 형제복지원의 진실) discovered that the government intervened in the trial, and showed that Park and his family still live in luxury, running several businesses including a hotel, fitness centers and real estate offices. After the broadcast, 55 South Korean lawmakers proposed a special act to thoroughly investigate the operation of the facility, ranging from the culpability of the government to the impact on the victims. However, as of August, 2015, the bill is still on hold, pending a vote in the legislature.
a painting depicting the living in Hyung Je Bok-ji-won (source: the Kyunghyunag Shinmum)
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.
The post Hyung Je Bok-ji-won (Brother Welfare Facility): South Korea’s Auschwitz Concentration Camp appeared first on South Korean Human Rights Monitor.
