Brothers Home

The Brothers' Home (Korean: 형제복지원) was an internment camp located in Busan, South Korea during the 1970s and '80s. During its operation, it held 20 factories and thousands of people who were rounded up off of the street, the homeless some of whom were children, in addition to college students who were protesting the regime. Only 10% of internees were actually homeless.[1] The camp was home to some of the worst human rights abuses in South Korea during the period, which were exposed in AP and CNN articles in 2016.[2][3][4]

The South Korean government called the Brothers' Home and other similar concentration camps opened by the Chun Doo-hwan regime during the fourth and fifth republics "welfare centers".

A DW news article reports a minimum of 516 people died over the course of 20 years at the Brothers' Home.[5] Widespread torture was common in these welfare centers.[4][1] In the 1990s, construction labourers dug up about 100 human bones on the mountain just outside where it stood.

Involvement of the Protestant Church

The Brothers' Home was operated in conjunction with the Protestant Church, with the church on the premises accommodating 3,500 people at any one time. Survivors allege close cooperation between the camp and the church on the premises. One former inmate reports being forced to perform in Christian plays for local and international guests and given Easter eggs as rewards; another was sent to the camp via a Christian missionary; and yet another describes the church and the camp as a business operation run by Pastor Lim Young-soon and Director Park In-kyun (a former boxer and soldier), with children forced to work and run an on-premises Korean adoption operation,[6] including writing letters soliciting donations from families who have adopted children in the past.[1] Some of the adoption partners abroad were also part of Christian organizations.[6]

Aftermath

Park In-kyun was eventually sentenced to two and a half years in prison only for embezzlement.[4]

See also

References
  1. Kim, Susan (10 December 2021). "Secrets of South Korea's house of horrors hidden in Australia". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  2. Tong-Hyung, Kim; Klug, Foster (19 April 2016). "AP: S. Korea covered up mass abuse, killings of 'vagrants'". Associated Press. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
  3. "Child victims of Brothers Home still search for justice". CNN. 24 August 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
  4. Jung, Bugyeong (30 May 2020). "Brothers' Home: South Korea's 1980s 'concentration camp'". BBC News. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  5. Kretschmer, Fabian (21 April 2016). "Report highlights past abuse of 'vagrants' in S. Korea". DW.COM. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  6. "Abusive South Korean Facility Exported Children". VOA. 9 November 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2021.

35°9′14.51″N 129°0′35.91″E

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