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Under US pressure bars in South Korea pledge to fight prostitution, human
trafficking
By Franklin Fisher
March 20, 2005
Pyongtaek — Bar owners outside Camp Humphreys in South Korea have pledged for
the first time in writing to keep prostitution and human trafficking out of
their establishments, and to blow the whistle on those who don’t.
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Officials have considered making areas known for prostitution, like this street
known as “Hooker Hill” near Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, off-limits to troops.
The agreement
The bar owners agreed, among other provisions, to:
- Specifically identify “businesses that support, harbor or sanction
prostitution or human trafficking.”
- Ban “limitations placed on” employees’ “personal freedoms.”
- Ban keeping of employees’ passports from them: “No employee shall have her
passport seized or kept from her, but shall keep her passport in her own
possession.”
- Ban coercing employees “into engaging in activities resembling prostitution.”
- Ban employees from “soliciting or propositioning patrons for sex.”
- Ban use of private rooms “for one-on-one services between employees and
patrons.”
- Ban the paying of money “to obtain the company or companionship of an
employee.” The payments are widely known as “bar fines” or “special fees.”
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Under the conservative US administration the USFK, and US forces throughout the
world, have undergone an unprecendented anti-vice campaign. US forces have
stiffened penalties for troops who engage the the services of prostitutes and,
in the case of Korea, exerted political pressure on the government to change
and enact laws cracking down on prostitution.
Memorandums of understanding were signed March 14 by Army Col. Michael J.
Taliento Jr., commander of the Area III Support Activity at Camp Humphreys, and
the heads of two associations representing local bar owners — the Korean
Special Tourist Association and the Anjung-ni Entertainment Establishments
Association.
The two associations represent a total of about 50 off-post establishments
outside the post, Taliento said.
The Defense Department and U.S. Forces Korea forbid military members from
involvement in prostitution and human trafficking, and the U.S. military’s
recent efforts to counter it — including stepped-up military law-enforcement
patrols of bar districts, accompanied by South Korean police — have been
well-publicized.
But for the Army in the Pyongtaek region, the memorandums of understanding mark
the first written agreements between Camp Humphreys and local bar owners on
such matters, said Clarence F. Slawson, Taliento’s deputy.
They put the bar owners on record as committing themselves and their employees
to shunning prostitution and human trafficking within their own merchant
community.
And the agreements warn that Camp Humphreys authorities will place offending
establishments off-limits to U.S. servicemembers, make periodic visits to bars
to check compliance, investigate reports of the illicit activity, and contact
South Korean police with information on prostitution and human trafficking,
both of which are illegal in South Korea.
“This would be a sharing of information, of facts, that would help them enforce
their own laws,” Taliento said.
The purpose of the agreements is to “solicit ... full and unmitigated support
and cooperation” in curtailing “prostitution and human trafficking within our
community,” according to the memorandums.
“By entering into this understanding,” the documents read, the parties give
their “full and unqualified support to eliminating any and all illegal
activities that contribute to an environment conducive to prostitution and
human trafficking.”
The agreements also spell out enforcement measures.
The Area III Support Activity “reserves the right to make periodic inspection
visits to ensure that” establishments are not engaging in any practices or
activity “resembling or conducive to prostitution or human trafficking,”
according to the memorandums.
Those making the inspections could include Army military police officers,
“courtesy patrols,” and agents of the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division,
Taliento said.
Businesses “known to engage in illegal activities that support or sanction
prostitution and human trafficking” will be declared off-limits to U.S.
military personnel by the Area III Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board, the
documents say.
Taliento is looking to the associations’ leadership to investigate any
allegations that may arise against member establishments.
“If I get a report that it’s happened, and we investigate it, I’m expecting
them to investigate it as well,” he said.
But he’s also looking to soldiers to avoid actions that support prostitution or
human trafficking, he said.
“This has to be a constant campaign of awareness and command presence, and I
think it’s going to be successful. Because we are going back to the focus …
that this is all part of the warrior ethos. This is all part of the Army
values, and that we’re appealing to the individual soldiers’ dignity, their
honor and personal respect, encouraging them to do the right thing, to say ‘No’
to prostitution and report it, not support it.”
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