총 48페이지

Eye of The Argus
Between Conflict Zone
and Comfort Zone
ByLeeJae-won
EditorialConsultant
bserving the recent sexual exploitation of the so-called “Telegram Room N” case, I have come up with an
event where I participated last summer: The First International Conference on “Action with Women and
Peace”hostedbytheMinistryofForeignAffairs.Theconferencewasdesignedtourgeaglobalpartnershipto
combatthesexualviolencecommittedtowardwomeninconflictzones.Duringtheprogram,manyspeakersagreedthat
women are always exposed to sexual exploitation in conflict zones. Concerning the fact that perpetrators in Telegram
Room N shot illegal videos of minor and young women and threatened them with distribution of these videos, South
KoreaisalsoaconflictzonetoeverysingleKoreanwoman.
Today,IwouldliketointroducearemarkablespeechthatIheardatthisinternationalconference.Thespeaker’sname
is Mer Ayang from The Republic of South Sudan. Mer Ayang is a national coordinator who belongs to the Global
NetworkofVictimsandSurvivorstoEndWartimeSexualViolence.Sheexperiencedaterriblewartimesexualcrime,
butisnowworkingasahelperwhosupportsvictimsofsexualviolence.Eventhoughhersufferingseemsspecial,what
shefeltandwhatKoreanwomenfeelareessentiallythesame.
Mer Ayang firstly emphasized that a proper legal system for victims is necessary. In the sexual violence cases of
conflict zones, it is highly difficult to find assaulters. The sexual violence in conflict is usually done as a group rape,
so the victim cannot specify who sexually assaulted her. Without the assaulters, we cannot hold a regular trial for the
rapecases.“Sometimesthelegalsystemislikelytoprotecttheassaulters,notthevictims,”saidAyang.Hersayingwas
poignant.ThemainpurposeofthelegalsystemistoprotecttheweakbutthesystemofAyang’scountrydoesnotfulfill
itsbasicpurpose.Onthispoint,wecanlookatourKoreanlegalsystem.Doesourlegalsystemreallypunishthesexual
perpetratorsseverelyenough?Ordoesthesystemslaptheperpetratorsonthewristsandregardtheircrimesjustastheir
personaldeviation?WecannotstillbeassuredthattheSouthKoreanlegalsystemhastakenitsbasicresponsibilities.
According to Ayang, a more important issue remains: sexual violence is not a personal problem of the victims. The
perpetrators who abused Ayang were mostly teenage soldiers. The young soldiers were originally gathered to commit
sexual crimes in conflict zones since sexual violence in conflict is used as a “common” weapon of war to weaken the
other group’s solidarity. Here we realize that sexual crime is a structural problem. The assaulters, like the ones in
conflictzonesandTelegramRoomN,commitacrimewithoutknowingthatitisacrime.Theirrecognitionliesbehind
this idea: they can treat women violently and a sex crime is not a big issue. This misconception of a sexual crime is
prevalent in South Korea. Professor Kim Eun-mee at Ewha Women’s University pointed out that most of us console a
suffererofunavoidableeventsliketrafficaccidentsbutweactindifferentlyasuffererofthesameunavoidableevent?
sexualcrime.
Every woman in South Korea is always exposed to the sexual exploitation that Mer Ayang went through. Although
SouthKoreaisnotcurrentlyinconflict,towomen,itisnomorethanaconflictzone.Isitimpossibleforustomakethis
countryacomfortzoneforallthewomen?Outoftheseoptions,wheredowewanttogo?
gh10117@hufs.ac.kr
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www.theargus.org

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