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“Was there ever a moment I was wholly sad and overcoming the harm done to me? [. . .] I tried to get over it as a victim, but I can’t.”

This is part of a memo the Center for Military Human Rights Korea (CMHRK) released on Thursday, written by a woman who was sexually harassed by a male superior in her unit, the 15th Special Activity Wing of the Air Force. The victim stated through the CMHRK that she is not receiving adequate victim protection from the military since the incident.

This is the unit of the Air Force that the late Master Sergeant Lee Ye-ram, a victim of sexual violence, worked for before her death.

Critics say nothing has changed even though a year has passed since Lee ended her life after speaking out about the sexual harassment and secondary victimization she was subject to.

The military sexual violence counseling center affiliated with the CMHRK released a memo written by the victim, a staff sergeant, on June 30 after being interrogated by military prosecutors as a suspect, commenting, “[The victim] is experiencing suffering similar to what the late Sergeant Lee Ye-ram, who worked for the same unit [as this woman], experienced.” The center added that the memo was being released per the victim’s wishes.

The staff sergeant recorded the suffering she had to endure without any time to heal from the harm done to her after suddenly being designated a “suspect,” not a victim. She was consistently sexually molested and harassed by her immediate superior, a warrant officer, from January to April, which she reported to the military. Afterward, the warrant officer in question was arrested for indecent assault on April 26. However, the military police’s investigation process resulted in the woman being handed to the prosecution service for suspected trespassing, which in turn resulted in her becoming a suspect overnight.

The staff sergeant was allegedly involved in the warrant officer’s harassment of others: According to the investigation, the warrant officer reportedly took the staff sergeant to the house of a soldier who had tested positive for COVID-19, forcibly ordering her to “kiss the soldier with COVID-19 and get infected with the virus.” In her memo, the woman wrote, “I thought about what I could have done wrong. It was something I didn’t even do. I did follow [the warrant officer to the house], but even though everything had been directed by him, I had gotten caught up once again.”

She continued, “The military is pushing me toward death. It’s leaving me alone to withstand everything by myself even though it won’t even provide me adequate protection,” expressing her dissatisfaction with the inadequacy of the military’s response to her case.

The staff sergeant has been on emergency leave for over three months, unable to return to her unit. Because her return was ultimately not approved, she recently requested to be assigned to a different unit.

“Victims of sexual violence report the harm done to them as part of their effort to get back to their daily life through recovery and healing,” the CMHRK stated. “But victims of sexual violence within the Air Force who report their case have all been driven to a corner.”

The center also stressed that the Air Force should “stop scrambling to evade responsibility through face-saving explanations but rather thoroughly reflect on what went wrong and when. The beginning of that process would be for those responsible to be investigated sternly so that they can assume responsibility as they deserve.”

Lim Tae-hun, director of the CMHRK, posted on Facebook on the same day, “I couldn’t help but ask what had changed in our military since the death of the late Sergeant Lee Ye-ram, what I had done as a committee member for the past one year,” announcing that he would be resigning from his position as a member of the barracks innovation advisory committee of the Air Force.

The Air Force stated that it is “taking [the case] seriously” and is “aware of the gravity of the situation.” During a briefing on the same day, Choi Yun-seok, the Air Force’s communication head in Seoul, said, “We are carrying out activities designed to identify various problems and come up with solutions,” adding, “[The case] will be discussed and solutions prepared at the Gender Equality [Advisory] Committee, which has civilian members. We will hold meetings of the [Air Force] Investigation Human Rights Committee and consistently come up with remedies.”

By Jang Na-rye, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]