-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/printout/0,13675,501020812-
333899,00.html
August 12, 2002 / VOL. 160 NO. 5
Base Instincts
Filipina and Russian women are being sold into sexual slavery in the seedy bars and
nightclubs that serve U.S. military bases in South Korea
BY DONALD MACINTYRE/TONGDUCHON
For the G.I.s at camp casey in Tongduchon, 20 kilometers from the demilitarized zone
separating the Koreas, about the only place for an evening's entertainment is
"downrange,"
or "the 'ville." Barely 100 meters from Camp Casey's main gate, this is a seedy mile of
sleazy bars, greasy-spoon restaurants and shops hawking everything from American-size
bomber jackets to see-through lingerie. But it's the bars that rule the strip: dimly
lit dives
with names like U.S.A., Las Vegas and Sexy Club, and signs warning that the premises
are
off-limits to Koreans. Filipinas and Russians in micro miniskirts idle in the
doorways, trying
to coax G.I.s inside. This is where U.S. soldiers head after an arduous day of drills
and
training.
On a recent night, three sergeants from the American Midwest sit at a table in a pizza
joint
downrange with a heavily made-up, platinum blonde Russian in a tight T shirt and pants.
She sips mango juice and says nothing. Dressed in T shirts and jeans, the men swig
Budweisers from the bottle and joke with each other. They do not want to give their
names.
"Just chillin' out," says one, his brown hair cropped on the sides and brush-cut short
on top.
He likes the Army, he says, though he can't wait to get home to see his young
daughter. He
is proud to be up here, "protecting democracy" from North Korean aggression. But that
concern doesn't extend to the Russian and Filipina women who work the bars where he
spends his free time: they're just part of the landscape. "The women are here because
they've been tricked," he says, nonchalantly. "They're told they're going to be
bartending or
waitressing, but once they get here, things are different," he adds, with a knowing
look.
The fact that the women may have been forced into prostitution doesn't seem to bother
most of their soldier-patrons. Nor, until recently, did it bother the military brass
at the
bases. But now a U.S. Senator and 12 members of Congress are demanding action.
Alarmed by a Fox Television news report casing brothels where trafficked women were
allegedly forced to prostitute themselves to G.I.s, the lawmakers sent a letter to the
Pentagon in May, asking for an investigation. "If U.S. soldiers are patrolling or
frequenting
these establishments, the military is in effect helping to line the pockets of human
traffickers," the legislators told U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. In June,
the
Pentagon pledged to investigate the trafficking allegations in Korea and check other
U.S.
military installations around the world. (A Pentagon spokesman could not confirm
whether
such an investigation had started. In a written statement, the U.S. military in Korea
says it
has nearly completed an inquiry into the allegations.)
In Korea, concern over the behavior of U.S. troops comes at a particularly sensitive
time.
Many younger Koreans resent the U.S. military presence on their soil. Sex crimes
involving
G.I.s prompt periodic outbursts of anti-Americanism. And last Wednesday, 3,000 angry
demonstrators staged a noisy protest in downtown Seoul over the death of two young
teenage girls who were crushed by a military vehicle during a June training exercise
on a
public highway not far from Tongduchon. Numerous apologies from the U.S. military have
failed to cool growing public anger over the incident. The military has refused to
relinquish
jurisdiction over the soldiers.
For their part, the U.S. lawmakers are particularly concerned about the charge that
soldiers
are paying to have sex with women who have been forced into prostitution. In 2000,
Congress passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, putting
Washington
at the forefront of efforts to combat the growing worldwide trade in women. Republican
Congressman Christopher Smith, the chief sponsor of the law and one of the lawmakers
pushing the Pentagon to clean up its act, says he was shocked to learn that it's
business as
usual up in Tongduchon: "There needs to be a very aggressive ending of this outrage,"
he
told TIME. "We need to lead by example."
A good place to start the campaign might be Club Y, a sleazy haunt that Filipinas
working
on the strip call "a bad bar." Rosie Danan found out just how bad the week she started
working there in late 1999, at the age of 16. Back home in Manila, a recruiting agency
had
promised Danan the job would require her merely to serve drinks and chat with
customers.
After she arrived in Korea—on a false passport—Club Y's mama-san took her papers away
and told her the rules: she would be serving up her body as well as booze. She would
get
no days off for the first three months. And later, she could earn days off only if she
sold
enough drink and sex. She would live in a room above the club and, unless she was with
the mama-san, would not be allowed outside except for three minutes a day to make a
phone call. The penalty for coming back late: $8 a minute.
At least 16 Filipinas have escaped from bars near Tongduchon since June, bringing with
them similar horror stories. Official statistics show 5,000 women have been trafficked
in
Korea since the mid-'90s, but human-rights groups says the real figure is much higher.
More than 8,500 foreign women entered Korea last year on "entertainment" visas, mostly
Filipinas and Russians. These visas are a tool for international trafficking, says Goh
Hyun
Ung, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration: "The women don't
know
they are going to be locked up as soon as they get to clubs and forced into
prostitution."
Goh says U.S. soldiers sometimes help Filipinas escape from clubs, but most are
ignorant of
the trafficking. He blames commanders for not educating the troops: "The U.S. military
in
Korea has always pretended the problem didn't exist."
Danan had to dance on stage every night, eight times a night—and, the mama-san warned,
all her clothes had better be off before the song ended. It was the most humiliating
thing
she had ever done. But a few days later, it got worse—a G.I. came in and paid to take
her
to one of Club Y's squalid VIP rooms, where sex costs $60 for 10 minutes and about $160
for half an hour. The mama-san gave her tissues and a condom, and hit her when she
resisted. "Every time I am crying," says Danan. "The mama-san said, 'If you cry like
that in
the business, the business is going down.'"
In June, U.S. Secretary of the Army Thomas White wrote Congressman Smith to assure
him that military brass in Korea "in no way encourage, support or condone any aspect of
prostitution or human trafficking." Colonel Sam Taylor, a spokesman at the main U.S.
installation in Seoul, says the military is aware of the worldwide problem of human
trafficking. "If presented with evidence of illegal activity, we'll start the process
in motion to
make those establishments off-limits."
But the reality is the bars are utterly dependent on their American patrons. Of the 41
major
U.S. military camps in Korea, the 12 biggest are served by nearby "camptowns," where
bar
owners licensed by the Korean government sell tax-free alcohol to G.I.s. (Korean
civilians
are not allowed in the bars.) Some 2 million customers visited the camptowns in 2000,
the
last year for which figures are available, according to Korea's Culture and Tourism
Ministry.
Troops at all the military installations in Korea are briefed on the consequences of
engaging
in illegal activities, including the one-year jail term that paying for sex can bring
under U.S.
military law. There are no briefings on the issue of trafficking, Taylor says: "It is
probably
something we will start to brief them on."
But last week there was little indication that much had changed downrange. Young men
with crew cuts still loiter in bars, fondling Filipina and Russian women, or paying
for lap
dances. And at least some of the bars still offer "VIP services." The bar owners deny
that
their dancers are tricked or forced into prostitution. Hyun Ju, Club Y's manager, is
emphatic
that "no woman has ever been mistreated at this club." She claims that "the owner
treats
the girls like family. He even takes the girls on holiday to the swimming pool." Kim
Kyong
Soo, president of the Korean Special Tourism Industry Association, which represents bar
owners serving U.S. soldiers across Korea, says his members complain that the U.S.
military allows Filipinas into Camp Casey to have sex with soldiers. "That's where the
prostitution begins," he insists. "If we put a stop to that, it would be much easier
for the
entertainers to do their job." ("That activity should not be taking place. It is
certainly
something we are going to ask questions about," says military spokesman Taylor.)
Kim, who owns the Palace Club on the Tongduchon strip, has himself been accused of
trafficking in women. In Aug. 1999, police issued an arrest warrant for him on
suspicion he
brought more than 1,000 Filipina and Russian women into Korea to work as bar girls
around U.S. military bases. Kim says he followed legal procedures. A judge cancelled
the
warrant for lack of evidence and closed the case.
Kim was working in the area in the early 1960s, when bar owners near the base were
granted government approval to form the Tongduchon Special Tourism Industry
Association. That gave them the right to buy and sell alcohol tax free to U.S.
soldiers and
other foreigners. At a time when Korea was still dirt-poor, this was a vital source of
foreign
exchange—and a way to keep G.I.s from troubling Korean women not involved in the sex
industry. Until the early 1990s, the women working downrange were almost all Korean.
But
in the mid-'90s, with the economy booming, Korean bar girls became too expensive.. So,
Kim claims, he negotiated with the Korean government to bring in Filipina and Russian
women on special entertainment visas. Contacted by TIME, an immigration official said
he
had never heard of such an agreement.
The supervision of the camptown bar owners association is the responsibility of the
Culture
and Tourism Ministry. But Choi Byung Goo, a ministry director, says he does not know if
there is any prostitution in the camptowns. "The bars are tourist restaurants for
foreigners," he says. "There is no way we can know how they operate their businesses."
If
he had gone to Tongduchon last week, he might have heard about the four Filipinas who
say they escaped from one of the clubs, where they were forced to dance naked and got a
day off only if they sold an impossibly high number of drinks a month. The women told
their
stories to a researcher at RMIT University in Melbourne, who is conducting an
undercover
investigation into conditions in Tongduchon. Despite Choi's protestations of
ignorance, the
researcher says the government is aware of the trafficking: "They would have to know.
The
anti-prostitution and trafficking NGOs have all been lobbying them on this issue."
Danan's story had a happy ending—almost. She escaped from her mama-san a year and a
half ago with the help of a Filipino priest. Last June, she returned to Korea hoping
to marry
her G.I. boyfriend, only to face another bitter disappointment. He beat her, she says,
and
almost smothered her with a pillow. So she went back to the shelter run by the Filipino
priest. Downrange, some of the soldiers say they have heard stories like that. But a
lot of
guys are just young and lonely and looking for a woman to drink a beer with. "It's
about
companionship, it's not about sex," says a soldier who's heard about trafficking, while
enjoying the rock 'n' roll music at the Sun Club. At Club Y, a soldier sits with his
buddy
nursing a beer as two Filipinas perform a lap dance for G.I.s at the table behind him.
He
thought prostitution was legal in Korea and has not heard about the trafficking, but
says,
"There's nothing I could do about it." At the pizza joint, the three sergeants don't
have
anything more to say, telling a reporter: "We shouldn't be talking to you." Why not?
"We're
here to protect democracy. We're not here to practice it." They finish their beers and
head
out onto the strip, the platinum blonde Russian in tow.
With reporting by Kim Yooseung/Tongduchon
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A<>E<>R
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