Base Instincts

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."
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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

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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.

Reflections

1. What words immediately come to your mind when you encounter the word "prostitute"?

2. Are your attitudes to prostitutes shaped more by your own convictions or by the influence of parents and
religious teachers?

3. What other ways of earning a living would you rate as less moral than prostitution?

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What The Article Says

1. What is ironic about the US serviceman's claim that he is "protecting democracy"?

(column 3)

Answer: While the US serviceman claims to protect democracy by military means from
the aggression of the North Koreans, patronizing prostitutes is a far less democratic
activity. He knows that the prostitutes are forced into a demeaning and hazardous
occupation. Also, he has a young daughter whom he is longing to see, oblivious to the
fact that the young women he patronizes are also somebody's daughters.

2. The U.S. military has refused to relinquish jurisdiction over the soldiers so that they
cannot be punished by the local civil authorities. (para 4) Do you think this is right?

3. What can be done by the local authorities do to ensure that forced prostitution does not
continue? Why do you think it is not being done?

Answer: The local authorities could control the sale of liquor at the bars, keep out illegal
immigrants from the country, raid the bars and arrest or rescue the prostitutes. None of
this is being done, possibly because the authorities want to appease the American soldiers
whose presence they deem necessary for ensuring North Korea's good behaviour, and
also because the people who get the profits from the bars and prostitution are local
businessmen.

Critical Thinking

1. Military servicemen who are posted overseas are lonely and homesick. Is this
justification for patronizing prostitutes? Do you see any similarity between the Korean
and the American military's lax attitude to the plight of the sex slaves, and the abuse of
Korean "comfort women" by the Japanese army during World War 2? Do some research
on the "comfort women" if you have not heard of them.

2. How has the mass media portrayed prostitutes and sex workers?

Answer: By and large, they are seen to lead exciting and glamorous lives. Movies such as
"Pretty Woman" (starring Julia Roberts), advertisements that offer "escort" services, and
the many magazine publications and internet websites that sell "skin" never allude to any
abuse or mistreatment. At times, movies such as "Pretty Woman" might lament at the sad
state of the prostitute, but ends with an unrealistic ending that offers romance, wealth and
permanent departure from the prostitution industry. There is also no mention of health
risks at all.

3. Does a person who knowingly and intentionally becomes a prostitute have worse
morals than one who was tricked into becoming a prostitute? Why?

4. Recently, reports out of Japan indicate that many teenage Japanese girls are, by way of
the Internet and message paging, offering sex services to older men. What do you think
are the causes of this sad sociological development?

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Answer: Teenagers who willingly sell their bodies for sexual services give important
priority to monetary gains and material possessions. The morality of engaging in such
exchanges is not a concern. The lure of what money can buy is too tempting for these
teenagers. For those who seek sexual services from these teenagers, the idea of fidelity,
the act of paying for sex and taking advantage of teenagers who are too immature to
consider the consequences are obviously not matters of concern.

5. Many say that the tourist trade and foreign clients are the ones who really keep
business thriving in brothels and child prostitution rings. Do you think governments
should do something about the behaviour of their citizens when they go overseas?

6. In some countries, prostitution itself is not illegal, but the act of soliciting for clients
and the act of pimping or living off the earnings of a prostitute are. Do you think such a
distinction is justified? Why?

[Students should speculate on the pragmatics of reinforcing a law. It is surely easier for
law enforcement officers to catch pimps and those who solicit than those who are actually
paid or who pay for sex. Moreover, there is a tacit acknowledgement in such laws that
there will always be people who are willing to pay for sex and those who are willing to
provide sex for a fee, and that this is acceptable if it is an agreement between consenting
adults. But tempting and coercing of any kind are deemed wrong and unlawful.]

7. Some countries try to control what they deem to be objectionable habits by banning the
availability of the means to practise the habit. Singapore for example has banned the sale
of chewing gum in an effort to ensure that her citizens do not have easy access to gum
and leave the sticky remains in public places. Do you think this is an effective measure?
Do you think such a measure should be applied to other objectionable habits? Give
details.

Application Question

The article highlights the fact that the American military presence is supposed to
safeguard democracy. Select evidence from the article that highlights to you the
importance of a free democracy. Does the article convince you that a democratic system
is more likely to ensure justice than a non-democratic one?

Points to Consider: In a democracy, the press is free and it was the free American press
that drew attention to the plight of the girls who are victims of the American military
presence in South Korea. The freedom to question the government enabled the Senator
and members of Congress to openly demand action against the exploitation of the Korean
women. The freedom of the press enables the TIME writer and other journalists to
continue to question if the military has indeed taken any action in response to the charges
that the military presence encourages exploitation of women as sex slaves. In fact, if the
military were more democratic, soldiers who break the law in any way would be dealt
with by Korean civil authorities, thus ensuring justice for all. Conversely, students could
also argue that a less democratic system could immediately demand the required
behaviour under threat of heavy punishment, without going through a debate at the
governmental level.

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