Korean students trussed and beaten—report

Press, 15 January 1986, Page 6

Korean students trussed and beaten—report

NZPA-AFP Washington An American human rights group yesterday accused the South Korean police of torturing detained student leaders by the “roast chicken” method — trussing them with ropes, suspending them from a ceiling and beating them while they were spun round. The 364-page report on human rights in North and South Korea was published yesterday by the newlyformed, Washington-based Asia Watch Committee. It said the Government of the South Korean President, General Chun Doo-Hwan, had abandoned its 1983-84 “liberalisation policy” and now dealt harshly with political dissidents, students, trade unionists and the press. A New York lawyer and chairman of the privatelyfunded organisation, Adrian Dewind, called on the Reagan Administration to put more emphasis on human rights in its dealings with Seoul. (

He said “quiet diplomacy is unlikely to advance needed reform and communicates United States in-

difference to the victims of abuses.”

Most of the report was devoted to human, rights in South Korea, because the committee was not allowed entry into North Korea, although it quoted “believable” figures of up to 100,000 political prisoners there, which would be the greatest number anywhere in the world. An Asia Watch mission

visited South Korea last June and talked with lawyers, students, clergy, university professors and families of political prisoners.

The report said increased student activism over the last two years had been met with fierce repression. The Chun Government had sent squads of combat police on to university campuses to raid student offices, confiscate documents and arrest leaders, many of whom were beaten and abused while in detention. Prisoners had been tortured an average of seven hours a day for 10 days by electric shock, forced feeding of pepper water and the “roast chicken” method, the report said. The formation of free and independent labour unions in South Korea was restricted by repressive labour laws and by Government abuse of labour union activists, it said. The report on North Korea was written by Bruce Cumings, of the University of Washington, one of the few Americans to have

visited the country.

It cited defectors to the south who claimed there were eight camps for political prisoners in the north. The report depicted a closed society without basic civil and political rights.

Asia Watch is affiliated to Helsinki Watch, formed in 1979 to monitor human rights. in the 35 European and North American signatory countries of the Helsinki Accords, and the Americas Watch, formed in 1981 to monitor human rights in Latin America and the Caribbean.