By Choi Hee-jae
The death of four soldiers in the recent military shooting rampage was merely the tip of the iceberg. Beneath the surface are more episodes of abuse and demoralizing hierarchy that indicate ostracism in Korean military is worse than people think.
Last year, a sex buying club was formed at a Marine Corps unit. Each member of the group paid 10,000-30,000 won, which they used for buying sex each time they left the base for vacation.
Conflict sparked when a corporal disobeyed his senior’s demand to join the group - an act that marked him as the new outcast for the time being. Regardless of rank, all members of his unit mocked and cursed at him, calling him a “eunuch.”
A non-governmental organization has reported that most cases like this deal with soldiers that end up getting themselves branded as outcasts by attempting to even out the balance of power.
Similarly, a sergeant, who recently got promoted to a higher position, is one of the victims who got assaulted for playing the good guy.
In order to halt the traditional, ongoing cycle of shoe-shining, ramen preparation, and ironing of uniforms - duties assigned to low-rank soldiers - he banned senior soldiers from demanding junior soldiers to carry out their traditional roles and equally distributed the workload.
The senior soldiers criticized the new system, claiming, “He must have benefitted from the hierarchy at one point. Why would he ban the practice now?” Consequently, the sergeant got appointed as an outcast.
Notice that there is a pattern: deviation from traditional practices or majority’s wishes leads to isolation.
Im Tae-hoon, an affiliate of the Soldiers’ Rights Center, claims that such pattern was born out of “Macho-ism, a form of male chauvinism that emphasizes the idea that a man must silently withstand beatings.”
What is unfortunate is that situations can worsen if word of counseling sessions get out, so the best that soldiers can do is record any scenes of abuse or simply endure the pain.
“As long as ostracism still exists in the military, inappropriate practices will be most likely hard to break, ” he said.
Lee Seung-jae, a law professor at the graduate school of Konkuk University, says that in order to mitigate problems like these, the military should solve human rights issues in collaboration with a monitoring organization, like ‘German Ombudsman for the Military,’ an independent body within the federal parliament.
The writer is a Korea Times intern. Heejaechoi94@gmail.com