Camp 22 - Human Rights Violations

Human Rights Violations

Ahn explained how the camp guards are taught that prisoners are factionalists and class enemies, that have to be destroyed like weeds down to their roots. They are instructed to regard the prisoners as slaves and treat them not as human beings. Based on this the guards may kill any of the prisoners any time, if he does not obey their orders. Kwon reported that as a security officer he could decide whether to kill a prisoner or punish him in other ways, if he violated a rule. He admitted that once he ordered to execute 31 people from five families in a collective punishment, because one member of a family tried to escape.

In the 1980s public executions took place approximately once a week according to Kwon. However Ahn reported that in the 1990s they were replaced by secret executions, as the security guards feared riots from the assembled crowd. He had to go to the secret execution site a number of times and there he saw disfigured and crushed bodies.

In case of serious violations of camp rules, the prisoners are subject to a process of investigation, which produced human rights violations, such as reduced meals, torture, beating and sexual harassment. In Haengyong-ri there is a detention center to punish prisoners. Because of the harsh treatment, many prisoners die in detention and even more are crippled when leaving the detention building.

Ahn and Kwon reported about the following torture methods used in Camp 22:

• Water torture: The prisoner has to stand on his toes in a tank filled with water to his nose for 24 hours.
• Hanging torture: The prisoner is stripped and hung upside down from the ceiling to be violently beaten.
• Box-room-torture: The prisoner is detained in a very small solitary cell, where he could hardly sit, but not stand or lie, for three days or a week.
• Kneeling-torture: The prisoner has to kneel down with a wooden bar inserted near his knee hollows to stop blood circulation. After a week the prisoner cannot walk and many die some months later.
• Pigeon torture: The prisoner is tied to the wall with both hands at a height of 60 cm (2 ft) and must crouch for many hours.

There are beatings every day, if prisoners do not bow quick or deep enough before the guards, if they do not work hard enough or do not obey quick enough. It is a frequent practice for guards to use prisoners as martial arts targets. Rape and sexual violence are very common in the camp, as female prisoners know they may be easily killed, if they resist the demands of the security officers.

Ahn reported about hundreds of prisoners each year being taken away for several “major construction projects”, such as secret tunnels, military bases or nuclear facilities in remote areas. None of these prisoners ever returned to the camp. Ahn is convinced that they were secretly killed after finishing the construction works to keep the secrecy of these projects.