[Editorial] Korean Gov't Must Work on Hansen's Compensation

The Tokyo District Court has rejected a compensation lawsuit by people suffering from Hansen's disease who were forcibly interned at Sorok Island during colonial rule by Japan, while on the other hand ordering people who were interned at a similar facility in Taiwan. Even if the judges were different, it is hard to understand how the same court could issue completely opposite judgments. The Japanese government passed a law in 2001 that provides for compensation for Hansen's sufferers, but it refused to pay compensation to people who were made to live on Sorok Island and in Taiwan's Losheng Leprosarium because both are not located in Japan. It is regrettable that while the judges in the Sorok Island case recognized that the responsibility for the prejudice and discrimination they faced lies with imperial Japan's policy of isolating people with the disease, they nevertheless rejected their claims because they paid more attention to the phrasing of the law than to the spirit behind the legislation.

The Korean government's indifference is what is largely to blame for the fact that the Hansen's compensation issue has gone all the way to a Japanese court. The decisive reason the Sorok Island claims were rejected was because the law limits compensation to "accommodation facilities in the home nation." The court noted that when the legislation was passed, there was no discussion about whether to include people who were isolated in facilities outside of Japan. In other words, the Korean government did nothing to bring attention to their plight. Even the Japanese media are speaking with a unified voice in saying people with Hansen's from the former colonies need to have a way to receive compensation since they are all elderly. It is embarrassing.

Discrimination and civil rights abuses against people with Hansen's continued even after the Republic of Korea was established. They were slaughtered by locals while cultivating farmland and driven out of the main population during the military dictatorships. The government needs to commence on a thorough inquiry into the conditions people with Hansen's find themselves in and produce measures to support their compensation and self-support. It should also consider an apology at the state level if government agencies were found to have participated in violating their rights. The provisionally titled "Special Law on Hansen's Patients" has been formally proposed by 62 members of the National Assembly. We hope to see that legislation passed in this ordinary Assembly session. The government must earnestly give ear to the cries of people with Hansen's, as they have suffered far more than what comes with the disease.

The Hankyoreh, 27 October 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection]