Separate fund planned for ex-sex slaves
By Kim Se-jeong
More than 300 civic groups have announced that they will launch their own foundation with citizens’ contributions to care for the sex slavery survivors and commemorate the history of sex slavery.
This comes in protest of the Korea-Japan agreement on Dec. 28 according to which Japan will contribute $8.3 million to establish a foundation in Korea to support the surviving victims and the Korean government will manage it.
Since the agreement, the victims said what they want is not money but a sincere apology and legal responsibility by Japan for the wartime atrocity.
“This is to counteract Japan’s pledge to establish a foundation,” Yoon Mee-hyang, the director of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, said during a press conference in Seoul, Thursday. A total of 383 civic groups and 335 individuals have joined the move.
Yoon said the foundation to be set up by the groups from civil society will carry out commemorative and educational projects, which the Korea-Japan agreement lacks. “Also, we will continue to work to enlist sexual slavery-related documents and records for the UNESCO Memories of the World,” she said.
The foundation will also offer scholarships to students, for which Kang Bok-dong, 91, one of the survivors, vowed to make donations.
There are few details on how much will be raised and when the foundation will open.
“At this point, we can only say that we hope to raise as much money as possible. That’s why we need support from citizens,” Yoon said, “We will carry this project at our own pace and not be influenced by what happens with the government.”
The groups also plan to hold campaigns here and abroad to call for the repeal of the agreement, which was made without consultation with the victims.
In the agreement, ministers of the two countries agreed that with the money given by Japan, the issue would be “finally and irreversibly” resolved. The 46 victims and civic groups claimed the deal reflected nothing of what the victims have demanded.
In the meantime, a local news outlet reported that the police were considering investigating Yoon’s organization for violating the Assembly and Demonstration Act about the weekly rally the group has organized every Wednesday for 24 years in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to call for Japan’s apology.
The news article quoted an anonymous police officer saying the NGO failed to correctly report the number of participants of the rally to the police ― the report was 100 people but nearly 1,000 participated.
Critics said that the police were pressuring the NGO after the Dec. 28 agreement, because police have never raised problems with the weekly rallies and the number of participants for the last 24 years.
Regarding the news, Yoon said, “The investigation will mean the government is cracking down on citizens’ freedom. Don’t forget the international community is closely watching us.”
Police later said they were probing other civic groups’ activities, not Yoon’s organization.