unjust

SEOUL, Oct. 2 (UPI) — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday apologized for the country’s troubled history of overseas adoptions, acknowledging that “unjust human rights violations” occurred and vowing stronger safeguards going forward.

“South Korea once bore the shameful stigma of being a ‘child exporter,'” Lee said in a Facebook post.

“While some found loving adoptive families, many suffered their entire lives due to the irresponsibility and inaction of certain adoption agencies,” he said. “My heart is heavy when I think of the anxiety, pain, and confusion of international adoptees who were thrown alone into a foreign land at a young age.”

In March, a long-awaited report by South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that the government violated adoptees’ rights as it sought to expedite overseas adoptions rather than strengthen domestic welfare programs. The report highlighted fraudulent practices such as document falsification, infant substitution and inadequate vetting of adoptive parents.

At least 170,000 South Korean children and babies were sent overseas since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s as the country went through a period of explosive economic growth.

Lee noted that even in the 2020s, long after South Korea had become an economic power, an average of more than 100 children per year were still being sent abroad for adoption.

Acknowledging the “unjust human rights violations” cited in the TRC report, Lee said that there were instances where the government “failed to fulfill its role in this process.”

“On behalf of the Republic of Korea, I offer my sincere apologies and condolences to the international adoptees, their families, and their families of origin who have suffered,” he said.

The president’s remarks came one day after South Korea formally became a party to the Hague Adoption Convention, an international treaty meant to establish safeguards for intercountry adoptions. Seoul ratified the treaty in July, some 12 years after signing the pact.

Moving ahead, Lee called on government ministries to “protect the rights of adoptees and establish a human rights-centered adoption system.”

“I also urge them to devise effective support measures to help international adoptees find their roots,” he added.

Reporting from Washington — Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi sent an unusual personal letter to President Obama, complaining about the West’s “unjust war” against his embattled regime but also endorsing Obama for a second term in the White House.

In a three-page letter Wednesday addressed to “Our son, Excellency, President Obama,” Kadafi praised the president as a man “who has enough courage to annul a wrong and mistaken action.”

The Libyan strongman said his country had suffered economic embargos and sanctions in the past, as well as airstrikes against his regime during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Now, Kadafi said, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is “waging an unjust war against a small people of a developing country.”

Despite the conflict, Kadafi assured Obama in somewhat garbled English, “You will always remain our son whatever happened. We still pray that you continue to be president of the U.S.A. We Endeavour and hope that you will gain victory in the new election campaigne.”

He signed the letter with his preferred title: Leader of the Revolution.

White House officials didn’t release the text of the letter, saying they don’t want to help the Libyan with his “messaging.” But they didn’t challenge the text provided by the Associated Press wire service.

Asked about the letter, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said only that Kadafi “knows what he must do”: begin a ceasefire, withdraw his forces and leave Libya.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney reminded reporters that the letter was “not the first” from Kadafi. On March 19, just before U.S. and British ships launched the first cruise missiles against Libyan forces, Kadafi assured Obama that “even if Libya and the United States enter into war, God forbid, you will always remain my son.”

Also Wednesday, Libya said a British airstrike had hit its major Sarir oil field and damaged a pipeline connecting the deposit to the Mediterranean port of Hariga.

“British warplanes have … carried out an airstrike against the Sarir oil field, which killed three oil field guards, and other employees at the field were also injured,” Reuters news service quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim as saying.

There was no immediate official comment from Britain’s Defense Ministry.

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