Sexually Tortured in a Pigpen-like Room: The Barbaric State Violence In Response to the Sabuk Struggle

[경향신문]

Miners and their families gather around the Sabuk Coal Mine in Jeongseong-gun Gangwon-do in April 1980. Courtesy of the Korea Democracy Foundation

■ Sabuk Struggle (Sabuk Coal Mine Labor Struggle)

On April 21, 1980, miners who worked at the Sabuk Coal Mine of Dongwon Consolidated Mine Development in Jeongseon-eup, Gangwon-do and their families protested poor labor conditions. Over four thousand people joined the protest, which was suppressed by the police, and they stood up to the martial law enforcement authorities. The miners disbanded on April 24, but after the military regime of Chun Doo-hwan defined them as a mob on May 6, authorities captured and brutally tortured the people.

Dozens of people were taken to a temporary investigation room set up in the auditorium of the Jeongseon Police Station in Gangwon-do. Spread out in the room were tools used to torture the people: lumber, ropes, rubber hoses, a pickaxe, a kettle, etc. In the investigation booths, which were narrow spaces installed along the auditorium wall like a pigpen, the people were assaulted, some kneeling on the ground, others hanging from ropes, hands and feet tied like roast chicken. Some people were beaten, then dragged to another space and tortured with water. Since the investigation booths were divided with pieces of cloth or plywood, one could see the other person being beaten in the next booth. The victims, regardless of whether they were male or female, were all neglected in the investigation room where the authorities even resorted to sexual torture. The violence that the state exercised against the people who took part in the Sabuk Struggle in 1980 was close to public torture.

On April 20, the eve of the 41st anniversary of the Sabuk Struggle, the Jeongseon Community Research Center released an investigation report on the truth and characteristics of state violence at the time of the Sabuk Struggle and announced, “The temporary investigation room where authorities drove men and women into small spaces and openly tortured them was the most barbaric torture room unparalleled in the history of state violence.”

The research center drew up the latest report after reviewing thousands of pages of relevant documents, including the Report of the Sabuk Case of 1980, published by the 2008 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (the first Commission) and oral statements of over fifty related parties from last July until March along with the Truth Foundation. The center described the report as “the first fruit of a comprehensive analysis of the Sabuk Struggle focusing on state violence.”

The research center also uncovered the details of sexual torture against women. At the time, the joint investigation team for the Sabuk case, comprised of officers from the military security unit, the police, Prosecution Service, and the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, tortured the women by poking particular parts of their body with their hands, truncheons, and baseball bats. If the victims’ clothes slid down while they were being tortured with water, the authorities roughly touched their bodies and assaulted them in that state. One victim was tortured when she was four months pregnant and suffered a miscarriage. Another victim said, “Exposing my private parts and breasts was nothing. The only thought I had was to see my children one more time before I died.”

Hwang In-wuk, the director of the Jeongseon Community Research Center said, “In the past, the victims of the Sabuk Struggle were asked to personally prove the fact that they were victims of state violence.” He also said, “The state and law enforcement agencies must apologize to the victims and the people for the brutal state violence and establish legal and institutional devices to redeem and help the victims.” For the first time, the research center released the names of 150 victims to the Kyunghyang Shinmun.