Rights group under fire for lax probe of 'don't ask don't tell' violation

Officials of Rainbow Action, an LGBT rights group, hold a press conference in front of the Constitutional Court of Korea, Seoul, Saturday, asking for the abolishment of the Military Criminal Act Article 92-6. / Yonhap

By Park Ji-won

The nation's human rights watchdog is embroiled in controversy over its recent investigation of a former Army chief of staff suspected of masterminding illegal surveillance of homosexual soldiers last year.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) ended its investigation without questioning chief of staff Jang Jun-kyu despite claims from the alleged victims that he violated the human rights of gay soldiers. Jang allegedly ordered the Army to uncover homosexuals in the military from February to March last year through eavesdropping, monitoring of gay dating applications and questioning soldiers about their sexual orientation.

The Military Human Rights Center for Korea (MHRCK), the advocate of soldier rights, filed an official complaint against Jang in May last year. In a petition to the commission, the center called for a thorough investigation of Jang and four soldiers who followed his order to find gay soldiers, according to the MHRCK.

However, the commission concluded the case citing a lack of evidence.

Gay rights advocates, however, claim the human rights body did not do its job properly.

“Even though Jang Jun-kyu retired from his post, the national human rights body wasn't able to question him, being afraid of high ranking officials,” MHRCK official Kim Hyung-nam told The Korea Times.

“How can the body do its job without questioning the alleged assailant? The body cannot conduct proper research on human rights violations in the future as a guardian of such rights in the army if it won't summon a retired general.”

Article 92-6 of the Military Criminal Act bans homosexual activity. In particular, the law defines homosexual activity as anal intercourse and also includes unwanted sexual advances. If a person violates the article they are punishable by a minimum prison term of two years. A lieutenant who was allegedly known to have had consensual anal sex with a soldier was sentenced to serve a six-month prison term with one year of probation last year.

The NHRC doesn't have the authority to conduct an investigation in the same way police do, but it can summon and fine a person who refused to show up for questioning, the activist group insisted.

Meanwhile, officials at the commission refuted the allegation of neglecting their duty saying they did their best according to procedures.

“We had a phone interview with Jang and he said he didn't give those orders,” an official at the NHRC told The Korea Times.

“We usually conduct an investigation through questionnaires for procedural efficiency. We didn't consider summoning Jang as it wasn't key to the investigation. We have other investigation results which have been driven through other means that weren't enough to prove criminal activities against human rights.”