60 Buckingham Gate

Westminster

London SW1E 6AJ

 

 

Dear President Moon Jae-in,

 

We are writing to you today in an open letter on behalf of the Vietnamese women who were raped by South Korean soldiers during the Vietnam War and the tens of thousands of children, known as the “Lai Dai Han,” who were born as a result of sexual assaults committed by South Korean soldiers during this period of conflict.

 

Through our not-for-profit group, Justice for Lai Dai Han, we work to raise awareness about the 800 surviving Vietnamese women who were victims of sexual violence and the “Lai Dai Han.” As members of this marginalised group, our struggle for recognition has been a long and difficult road.

 

Sexual violence continues to blight the lives of women and their children in areas of conflict around the world. The Government of South Korea should be commended for its efforts to raise this issue on the world stage, becoming a leading voice internationally in speaking out against the wartime suppression of women’s rights.

 

With that in mind, we are calling upon the Government of South Korea to acknowledge the widespread sexual assaults committed against Vietnamese girls – some as young 13 or 14 – by South Korean soldiers during the Vietnam War. We urge you to support our calls for a full independent investigation of their claims, led by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

 

As part of this process, 50 Lai Dai Han and I are willing to undergo blood tests and provide DNA samples to be compared with the database of South Korean soldiers, to prove unequivocally that we have South Korean parentage. Following the conclusion of an independent UNHRC investigation and DNA tests, we would ask the Government of South Korea to issue a formal apology to the victims of sexual violence and their children.

 

In January 2019, JLDH was honoured to convene an event on ending sexual violence in conflict in the British Houses of Parliament. Speakers from across the political spectrum and around the world, including Lord William Hague, the co-founder of the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, Lord Ahmad, the UK Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, and Nadia Murad, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner and a victim of sexual violence, all spoke in support of the Vietnamese victims and their children.

 

On behalf of the Lai Dai Han, we urge you to support our calls for an UNHRC investigation, acknowledge the mistakes of the past and stand with all victims of sexual violence. 

 

Please visit http://www.laidaihanjustice.org/ to learn more. On behalf of all Vietnamese victims of wartime sexual violence, we await an official response from the Government of South Korea as we seek Justice for Lai Dai Han. 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

CC: Rt Hon Jack Straw, International Ambassador, JLDH

CC: Jin Sun Mee, Minister of Gender Equality and Family

CC: Enna Park, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the United Kingdom

CC: Coly Seck, President of the UN Human Rights Council (2019)

CC: António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations