News1 Korea: “Friend Who Died from Beating Was Reported as an Accidental Death” — Survivors Seek Truth Investigation into ‘Siloam House’ — The Successor To Brothers Home.
Original Korean Article published on September 16th, 2026.
ChatGPT English translation posted to Paperslip on September 19th, 2026.
BOLDS and blue highlighting mine.
Please see original Korean article for photos.
“Friend Who Died from Beating Was Reported as an Accidental Death” — Survivors Seek Truth Investigation into ‘Siloam House’
By Yoo Chae-yeon, News1
September 16, 2026, 5:53 PM
Former Brothers Welfare Center facility ‘Siloam House’: “Investigate the institutionalization system”
“Survivors who had been confined at Siloam House, a facility for people with severe disabilities that opened in Busan in the 1990s, have filed a petition for a truth investigation with the Third Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Truth and Reconciliation Commission).
On the afternoon of the 16th, organizations including the Busan branch of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun) and Footstep Action for Disability and Human Rights held a press conference in front of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Jung-gu, Seoul. They called for an investigation into the truth surrounding Siloam House and the broader “institutionalization system.”
Park Dong-soo, a survivor of Siloam House who has cerebral palsy and is classified as having a Grade 1 disability, said:
“The government knew that there were problems at the many facilities I went through, but it continued to authorize those facilities and allowed disabled people to die.”
He continued:
“All the food was boiled and eaten without any seasoning, and in the middle of winter, the window was broken so cold air came straight in, but we slept with nothing but blankets over us.”
He also said:
“My friend was beaten to death by someone with a mental illness, but they colluded with the hospital and reported it as an accidental death. They took the money that came out of it for themselves.”
He added:
“It is unfair that I spent my younger years moving from facility to facility without ever knowing what happiness was, never being able to get outside even once, and suffering terribly.”
According to Park, both before and after being placed at Siloam House, he moved between similar facilities and experienced abuse including violence. He eventually left institutional care and became independent with the help of an acquaintance.
The participants said:
“Many survivors experienced a revolving-door phenomenon, moving from facility to facility and from facilities to psychiatric hospitals.”
They continued:
“Within the ‘institutionalization system,’ in which people are transferred to facilities because of disabilities, mental illness, and other reasons without consideration of their experiences of harm or their individual needs, many survivors are able to become independent only after reaching adulthood.”
They also said:
“Although a truth investigation into Brothers Welfare Center has been carried out, the matter is not over.”
They added:
“We are demanding not only an investigation into the truth surrounding Siloam House, but also an investigation into the interconnected and structural institutionalization system that continues to this day.”
Siloam House was a welfare facility for people with severe disabilities that opened in 1991 and closed in 2016.
In 1989, the Busan municipal government established a plan to convert the facilities of Brothers Welfare Center into a residential care facility for people with severe disabilities. Construction began in 1990, and Siloam House opened in December 1991.
Brothers Welfare Center, the predecessor of Siloam House, was a place where people identified by authorities as “vagrants” were forcibly confined through the exercise of state power. It has been established that forced labor, assaults, harsh treatment, deaths, and disappearances occurred there, and that more than 650 people died.”
ChatGPT says:
One nuance: “시설화” (si-seol-hwa) is more literally “institutionalization” or “being placed into institutions.” In this article, it refers specifically to the broader social/systemic practice of placing disabled people or people with mental illness into residential institutions rather than supporting them to live independently.