Human Rights Watch, an independent organization, has spoken out on the plight of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, American citizen and prisoner of North Korea. Following are some excerpts from that article.
The North Korean government’s announcement on the sentencing of Aijalon Mahli Gomes, a US citizen, raises serious concerns about whether his trial was fair, especially given the lack of transparency and extremely harsh punishment for a vaguely worded charge…
“Trials in North Korea are notoriously unfair, and Gomes’ appears to have been no different,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “This whole episode looks like another North Korean charade, with a vague criminal charge and a lack of due process leading to a long prison sentence.”
KCNA announced that Gomes admitted guilt on all charges, but did not provide any additional details to explain the “hostile acts” charge…“Eight years of hard labor in North Korean prison is an extremely harsh punishment,” Robertson said. “North Korean prisons are notorious for torture, forced labor, chronically insufficient food, and a lack of medical treatment.”
I know of three other Americans held captive by North Korea in the past 12 months. Journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, sentenced to 12 years hard labor, were released after almost five months of isolation. Former U.S. President, Bill Clinton, had to intervene on their behalf. The photo above shows Euna and Laura arriving home. Euna’s young daughter and husband await her–now, that has got to be tough.
Robert Park spent 43 days as a guest of North Korea, having determined that he would draw attention to alleged human rights violations there. Park was released, having confessed the error of his ways. The Guardian reported it like this:
Park was quoted as saying he had been treated in a “kind and gentlemanly manner”, and explaining that his understanding of North Korea had been tarnished by “false propaganda made by the west. This false propaganda prompted me, a Christian, to entertain a biased view.”
Here is the full account of Robert Park’s confession, as reported by the Korean Central News Agency.
What has me puzzled is that none of them have spoken out publicly about their captivity. Has the U.S. government asked them to hold back? Do they fear reprisal by North Korean agents? Was the emotional pain just too much? Are they waiting on a book deal? Why have they chosen to remain silent–especially since all of them apparently entered the country in order to draw attention to the situation there?
In the case of Robert Park, chatter has him suffering mental torture and being forced into psychiatric treatment. Look, I know only what I have researched and reported about his case. This may or may not be true. Here is a link to some of the talk, from the “One Free Korea” site. All I can say for sure is, “God bless Robert Park.”
Euna Lee and Laura Ling, having been named amongst the “Women of the Year” by Glamour, have often been characterized as “racing for a book deal” (just run a search to see what I mean), and the word is that Random House advanced Euna “six figures” for her work in progress, “The World is Bigger Now: A Memoir of Faith, Family and Freedom.”
Say what you will about Euna, Laura and Robert–my take is that all three were caught doing something that they felt was right and that there is more to their silence than concern about book deals. Speaking of which, the most recent personal account I can find, by one who has been there and back, is Larry Zellers’ In Enemy Hands: A Prisoner in North Korea
I’m thinking that there is more to be heard, and I am hoping that they will each find the freedom and strength to speak it.
For a recent video account of the mysterious country, here is a link to a recent VBS TV documentary.
Laura Ling and Euna Lee actually shared their thoughts, post-release, in a September 2nd Op Ed in the Los Angeles Times.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-lingleeweb2-2009sep02,0,7489638.story
They told about their capture, Richard, saying that they were “firmly back inside China, but the North Korean soldiers “violently dragged us back across the ice to North Korea.”
Concerning their treatment in captivity, only this:
“We know that people would like to hear more about our experience in captivity. But what we have shared here is all we are prepared to talk about — the psychological wounds of imprisonment are slow to heal.”
It would appear that the North Korean version of Robert Park’s story is skewed. Without a clear response to that, however, from Robert or from Euna and Laura, for all we know, Aijalon Mahli Gomes is undergoing the same hospitality that was reported in Robert’s last statement, released by North Korea:
“People have been incredibly kind and generous here to me, very concerned for my physical health as never before in my life. I mean, my family, of course, is concerned about my physical health but people here have been constantly concerned and I’m very thankful for their love.”
I’m not digging for guts and gore, here, but if the people of North Korea are being subjected to the kinds of atrocities that are rumored, then the world needs to be clearly and loudly told about it. If that is not true and the society is working so well that it is utopia there, then we need to know that too. And for Aijalon Mahli Gomes, caught in the middle, his countrymen need to keep a bright light shining on his plight, lest his story be lost in the torrent of other news stories that demand our attention.
Robert, Euna and Laura are the go-to people for speaking out on behalf of Aijalon, it would seem. Why aren’t they speaking?
Park and Gomes were friends. Perhaps Park feels it is best for him not to stoke the ire of the norK’s. As for Euna and Laura, their reasons for going to nKorea is not the same as Park and Gomes. They went into the country for “interviews”, not to bring attention to the plight of the north Korean people. Additionally, they went into north Korea carrying video recordings of north Koreans that had slipped into China. This was very negligent as when the north Koreans captured them, they may have used those video taped interviews to find family members of those that had fled to China and punished them as they are so apt to do.
Finally, almost immediately after their repatriation to the US, Laura and her sister Lisa signed a book deal. IMHO, that hints at their having gone to north Korea in the first place being more about personal fame and attention than bringing attention to the situation there. Their relationship to the celebrity Lisa Ling and our ex-Vice President, Al Gore, gave the north Korean an opportunistic public relations coup. Especially when Mr. Clinton made his trip over to “secure their release”.
Gomes and Park, thus far, do not appear to be attempting to profit (other than in the winning of Crowns in Heaven) from their actions.