ACRC National Defense Ombudsman Protected Rights and Interests of 13,000 Service Members and Families During the Moon Administration

- 7,889 National defense and VA grievance closed resulting in 1,862 cases resolved -

- The acceptance rate of Ombudsman’s recommendation by public institutions reached 94% -

(5th Oct. 2021, ACRC)

The National Defense Ombudsman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (Chairperson Jeon Hyun-Heui, ACRC) has protected the rights and interests of some 13,000 members of the armed forces and family members of veterans, since Moon Jae-in government took the office, by resolving a total of 1,862 civil complaints.

Compared to the five-year period (2012 through 2016) prior to the Moon government, the number of cases closed rose by 14.7% (from 6,727 cases to 7,889), while the rate of case acceptance in which complaints are resolved grew by 7.7 percentage points (15.9% to 23.6%). Meanwhile the rate of acceptance where the Ministry of National Defense (MND), Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA), Military Manpower Administration (MMA), and Defense Acquisition Program Administration accepted the ombudsman’s recommendation reached 94.0%.

When classifying the cases by field, the Commission closed 392 cases in military (5%), 5,917 in national defense (75%) and 1,580 in veteran’s affairs (20%), and thus relieved the complaints of soldiers in service to patriots to civilians who were affected by military facilities.

The military field accounts for around 5% of civil complaints the National Defense Ombudsman closed. Despite continued efforts to improve the military culture have been reducing incidents and accidents, a closer look and particular interest are still required so that the rights and interests of service members who faithfully carry out their military duty are not violated.

Take an example of a complaint handling case: a petitioner asked for recognizing his brother’s death as one on the job for his brother passed away due to his senior soldier’s assaults. While investigating the case, the ACRC found out that the deceased’s situation is one of the cases where suicides and deaths from assaults had been made subject to the death on the job after re-deliberation, but the petitioner had not applied for the administrative disposition. The Commission, thus, recommended the MND to deliberate all such death cases, including the petitioner’s brother’s, with its own power in 2018. The Ministry re-deliberated 91 cases and ordered to recognize 90 cases as the death on the job.

The national defense category takes up about 75% of grievances the National Defense Ombudsman closed as complaints about the conion administration and military facilities have dramatically risen. Particularly, as the number of social service agents has hiked since 2017, related grievances have increased about five times from 66 cases in 2016 to 338 in 2018.

In order to resolve repeated civil complaints regarding social service personnel, the ACRC delivered a recommendation to the MMA to create a procedure to file an objection about issues in service, such as changing the organization for service, and to enhance the agents’ sense of responsibility for their military service duty through training, disciplinary actions, etc. in 2019; and therefore contributed to protecting the rights and interests of some 60,000 social service personnel and building an advanced service culture.

The veterans’ affairs field accounts around 20% of the total cases closed over the last five years as veteran policies have advanced and more veterans have been made subject to veteran benefit programs during the Moon administration. Importantly, the ACRC helps protect the rights and interests of veterans who fought overseas as to the veterans’ affairs. As the government’s recent efforts in providing face masks to the UN forces from Thailand, Ethiopia and other countries who fought in the Korean War moved Koreans, and as more Korean citizens share the idea that the foreign Korean War veterans need to enjoy Korea’s veteran benefit programs, the ACRC is accelerating its efforts in handling civil complaints on veterans’ affairs that goes beyond the national borders.

For instance, in 2019, some senior Greek veterans who fought in the Korean Wars sent the ACRC a letter that said the Greek Korean War Veterans Memorial had been left unattended more than 10 years in Yeoju Rest Area, failing to serve its purpose of honoring the veterans. After 6 on-site investigations and 16 meetings with related organizations to reach an agreement between the Embassy of Greece in Seoul, MND, MPVA, and City of Yeoju to relocate the Memorial to Yeongwol Park in Yeoju near citizens from the highway side, resolving Greek Korean War veterans’ long-standing grievance that transcends the national borders.

On the other hand, the State of Georgia of the U.S. has recently passed a bill to honor war veterans from overseas as the US veterans. Korean residents in Georgia who fought in wars along with the US had found it difficult to obtain the record of their service to submit to the Georgia State government. 49 of them filed a grievance with the ACRC, and 45 veterans to date have acquired their service record. (See photos below.)

At the same time, over the last five years, the National Defense Ombudsman has worked on 104 institutional improvement projects, including decommissioning idle national defense and military facilities (2018), resolving repeated complaints from the neighborhood of air bases (2019), and improving the management of memorial facilities across the nation (2020). Through the institutional improvement, the Ombudsman was able to fundamentally tackle the cause of grievances of members of the armed forces and their families as well as civilians who had suffered the damage by military facilities.

For instance, citizens in the neighborhood of military facilities were suffering from inconvenience due to unattended and idle national defense and military facilities, such as bunkers and guard posts. The ACRC recommended the MND to conduct investigations on all idle facilities to identify if one is necessary for the defense purpose and tear down unnecessary ones in 2018. The Ministry has allocated 295.6 billion won (25 million dollars) up to this year, and is demolishing the inessential facilities.

Furthermore, over the last five years, the Commission ran 17 sessions of on-site consultations by visiting boot camps, recruit training centers of each armed force, VA hospitals, neighborhoods of military facilities. Service members who would find it hard to use e-people or visit the ACRC office to file a complaint, veterans who have mobility difficulties, and residents who live near the border were able to resolve their complaints through the on-site consultations.

The National Defense Ombudsman is currently developing a way to make the system to treat illnesses and injuries developed and incurred during military service more inclusive so that military personnel can maintain their health before finishing their service. It is also collaborating with the MND, MPVA and local governments to find the bereaved family of 2,048 fallen soldiers the government has not yet found to inform the death after 70 years of the decease during the Korean War.

The ACRC Chairperson Jeon Hyun-Heui commented “patriot An Jung-geun said that sacrificing one’s life for the sake of the country is servicemen’s duty. Some 600,000 military personnel carry the spirit to protect the Republic of Korea. The ACRC will do our best to make sure service members safely finish their service, and to ensure the resolution of grievances of military and war veterans who made Korea as it is today.