'Child Rights Violations' Remains Found a Day After Excavation at Seongam Academy Secret Burial Site

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] Human remains were discovered just one day after excavation began at the mass burial site of Seongam Academy, where child exploitation and human rights abuses occurred from the Japanese colonial period through the 1980s dictatorship.

On the 29th, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) announced that on the 27th, they found about 10 teeth and 4 buttons at the burial site on Seongam Island, Danwon-gu, Ansan City, Gyeonggi Province.

Based on the characteristics of the teeth, the age is estimated to be in the teenage years. The buttons appear to have come off the uniforms worn by the inmates during their time at Seongam Academy. The TRC plans to determine gender, age, and time of death through further analysis.

The TRC held a ground-breaking ritual at the burial site on the 26th and began a pilot excavation. The excavation area covers about 10% of the estimated total burial site, where approximately 150 remains are believed to be buried. So far, the TRC has excavated four burial mounds. Excavation is scheduled to continue until the 30th.

Since May 27 of last year, the TRC has investigated about 190 applicants who suffered at Seongam Academy. During this process, testimonies were collected from former inmates describing beatings, malnutrition, deaths by drowning during escape attempts, and secret burials. In 2018, Gyeonggi Province announced that the excavation of the Seongam Academy site estimated about 150 remains buried there.

Jeong Geun-sik, chairman of the TRC, stated, "The remains and artifacts uncovered in this excavation reveal that Seongam Academy inmates were secretly buried," adding, "A comprehensive report on the truth regarding the child human rights violations at Seongam Academy will be announced in October."

Seongam Academy was a reform facility established by the Government-General of Korea during the Japanese colonial period under the pretext of securing soldiers for the Pacific War and operated until 1982. The government at the time forcibly took children and youth under the guise of rehabilitation and education of vagrants, exploiting their labor and violating their human rights.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.