More than 1.7 million people flee war in Ukraine: UNHCR

More than 1.7 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, according to the latest data from the United Nations on Monday.

- 1,735,068 refugees -

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, recorded 1,735,068 refugees on its dedicated website, just over 200,000 more than the previous count on Sunday.

UNICEF, the UN children's agency, believes around half of them are youngsters.

Authorities and the UN expect the flow to intensify as the Russian army advances deeper into Ukraine, particularly as it approaches the capital, Kyiv.

More than 37 million people lived under the Kyiv government's control before last week's invasion.

"The military offensive in Ukraine has caused destruction of civilian infrastructure and civilian casualties and has forced people to flee their homes seeking safety, protection and assistance," UNHCR says.

The agency projects that as the conflict unfolds, "an estimated four million people may flee Ukraine", noting that many people were also displaced from their homes within the country.

Here is a breakdown of where the people who fled across Ukraine's borders now find themselves, according to the UN Refugee Agency:

- Poland - 

Six in 10 of those who have fled Ukraine are now in Poland. The UNCHR's figures published Monday said 1,027,603 refugees were now in Ukraine's biggest western neighbour.

The number swelled by 142,300 in 24 hours.

Polish border guards on Sunday said the total figure represented "a million human tragedies".

Poland has championed the cause of Ukrainian refugees. The government has set up reception centres and charities have mobilised in a massive aid effort, helped by the estimated 1.5 million Ukrainians already living in the EU member state.

- Hungary -

Some 180,163 refugees are now in Hungary -- 10 percent of the total who have fled Ukraine. The number was up 11,110 on Sunday's figure.

The country has five border crossings with Ukraine and several border towns, including Zahony, have turned public buildings into relief centres, where Hungarian civilians are offering food or assistance. 

- Slovakia -

Across Ukraine's shortest border, some 128,169 refugees are now in Slovakia, around seven percent of the total.

- Moldova -

Some 82,762 refugees are now in Moldova, though many thousands more have passed through the non-EU state on their way to other countries -- hence the number is down 1,305 since Sunday.

According to the UNHCR, many refugees are continuing on to Romania or Hungary, often to reunite with family.

Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita said Sunday that more than 230,000 people have crossed the border from Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Moldova on Sunday and Gavrilita urged Washington to provide more humanitarian aid to help her country of 2.6 million, one of Europe's poorest, cope with the influx.

- Romania -

Some 78,977 refugees from Ukraine are now in Romania.

Two camps have been set up, one in Sighetu Marmatiei and the other in Siret.

- Elsewhere in Europe - 

UNHCR said that 183,688 people, having crossed Ukraine's borders into neighbouring nations, had now moved on to other European countries.

- Russia -

UNHCR's latest figure for the number of refugees who have crossed Ukraine's longest border into Russia since the invasion, compiled up to the end of Thursday, is 53,000.

UNHCR notes that an additional 96,000 people moved to Russia from the separatist eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions between February 18 and 23, in the days before the Russian invasion.

- Belarus -

Some 406 refugees had made it to Belarus, according to the latest UNCHR tally for the country, compiled up to the end of Friday.

Agence France-Presse

PayPal shuts down its services in Russia citing Ukraine aggression

Payments company PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL.O shut down its services early on Saturday in Russia, citing "the current circumstances," joining many financial and tech companies in suspending operations there after the invasion of Ukraine.

"Under the current circumstances, we are suspending PayPal services in Russia," President and Chief Executive Dan Schulman said in a statement. He added that the company "stands with the international community in condemning Russia's violent military aggression in Ukraine."

A company spokesperson said PayPal will support withdrawals "for a period of time, ensuring that account balances are dispersed in line with applicable laws and regulations.”

PayPal, which had only allowed cross-border transactions by users in Russia, stopped accepting new users in the country on Wednesday. 

Ukrainian government officials had been calling on PayPal to quit Russia and help them with fundraising.

PayPal said on Friday that "since the beginning of the invasion, PayPal has helped raise over $150 million for charities supporting response efforts in Ukraine, one of the largest efforts we've seen in such a short period of time.”

PayPal's suspension in Russia also applies to its money transfer tool Xoom. Rivals Wise and Remitly earlier suspended some services in Russia. 

-reuters-

South Korea, US scale back military drill over coronavirus

SEOUL - South Korea and the United States will conduct its springtime military exercise this week, but the joint drill will be smaller than usual because of the coronavirus pandemic, Seoul said on Sunday.

The allies will begin a nine day "computer-simulated command post exercise" on Monday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

South Korea and the United States decided to move forward with the drills after "comprehensively taking into consideration the COVID-19 situation, the maintenance of the combat readiness posture, the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the establishment of peace," the JCS said, noting that the exercise is "defensive" in nature.

The drills will not include outdoor maneuvers, which have been carried out throughout the year, and the number of troops and equipment will be minimized due to the pandemic, Yonhap news agency reported.

The exercises also provide a chance to assess South Korea’s readiness to take over wartime operational control (OPCON), and the series of scaled back drills could complicate President Moon Jae-in’s drive to complete the transfer before his term ends in 2022.

Even before the pandemic the drills had been reduced to facilitate US negotiations aimed at dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear programs.

The combined drills are closely monitored by North Korea which calls them a “rehearsal for war”.

While Pyongyang has sometimes responded to such drills with its own shows of military force, it may be unlikely to do so this time, said Chad O'Carroll, CEO of Korea Risk Group, which monitors North Korea.

"I think there’s too much on the domestic agenda going wrong to risk any significant tit-for-tat escalation," he said on Twitter. "And this is a government which tends to focus most of its resources on dealing with one key issue at a time."

North Korea's drastic measures to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak have exacerbated human rights abuses and economic hardship, including reports of starvation, for its citizens, already battered by international sanctions, a United Nations investigator has said. 

-reuters-

Trump's actions rattle the military world: 'I can't support the man'

Erin Fangmann grew up in a military family, has been married to a captain in the Air Force for 18 years and has voted Republican all her life, including for Donald Trump. But as with a number of other veterans, troops and military family members who have watched the president with alarm, her support has evaporated.

“He has hurt the military,” said Fangmann, who lives in Arizona, one of several states in play this November with a high percentage of veterans and active-duty service members. “Bringing in active-duty members to the streets was a test to desensitize people to his future use of the military for his personal benefit. I think the silent majority among us is going to swing away.”

Since 2016, Trump has viewed veterans as a core slice of his base; in that year’s presidential election, about 60% voted for him, according to exit polls, and swing-state counties with especially high numbers of veterans helped him win. Many veterans and members of the military stuck with him even as he attacked the Vietnam War record of Sen. John McCain, disparaged families of those killed in combat and denigrated generals whom he fired or drove from government service. Some conservative rank-and-file enlisted members silently agreed with Trump.

But the president’s threat last week to use active-duty troops on U.S. streets against largely peaceful protesters and his flirtation with invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act have rattled the military world, from its top leaders to its youngest veterans. If they break in significant numbers, they could carry political weight in key battleground states like Arizona, North Carolina and Ohio.

“I have always been a swing voter,” said Amy Rutkowske, an Army veteran and spouse who lives in North Carolina and is volunteering on a House race, the first time she has ever volunteered in politics. “My fundamental understanding is that the president is the commander in chief and that the office demands respect. But I have never wanted a different commander in chief more.”

Some members of the military — who are not permitted to speak about politics publicly — and their families have been posting critically on social media about the president and policies of his that they once supported. Others, who have never been excited about Trump as their commander in chief, have begun to speak out, join protests and volunteer for progressive causes.

They say that Trump has politicized the armed forces — which pride themselves as being above politics and discourage partisan discourse in their ranks — and has threatened the Constitution, both of which they deem last straws.

Of course, many veterans and military personnel still support Trump. Quality recent polling on their views is scant, but some have embraced his America-first campaign message, his focus on military spending and his creation of a new Space Force that has been unexpectedly well-received after initial scoffing.

In the 2018 congressional elections, when support for Democrats surged, 58% of military voters continued to vote for members of Trump’s party, according to exit polls. And those who do turn away from the president now will not automatically support his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.

Martin Sepulveda, a former commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve who lives in Arizona, said of Trump, “I can’t support the man.” But he added, “Am I a Biden guy? No. I don’t know what I will do. I have been a registered Republican for years.”

But the recent condemnations of Trump from high-level military veterans like Jim Mattis, the former defense secretary and a retired four-star Marine Corps general, have in some cases fortified the shifting views among military members. “The Mattis statement has changed people in some amazing ways,” said Chelsea Mark, a Marine veteran in Florida who works for a veteran service organization. “I went on a veteran hike recently, and I saw someone wearing a Donald Trump T-shirt, and that same person this week was posting anti-police-brutality things on her Instagram.”

On June 5, the same day the Marines issued a ban on displays of the Confederate battle flag at its installations, a retired Marine in dress uniform stood solo in front of the Utah state Capitol in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, with black duct tape across his mouth that read, “I can’t breathe.”

Trump’s moves to use the military against American protesters and looters came after several months of other highly unorthodox moves by his administration involving the military, including the clearing of three members of the armed services accused of war crimes; the firing of Capt. Brett Crozier after he raised alarms about the coronavirus on the aircraft carrier he commanded; the calling back of West Point students during a pandemic so the president could address them for a graduation, which he is set to do Saturday; and the diversion of funds from military projects to pay for a border wall, a move that followed the deployment of troops to the border just before the 2018 midterm elections.

“This is the culmination of all those metronomic choices that have intruded into the military chain of command and culture,” said Kori Schake, director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, who served as a foreign policy adviser on McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. “I do think it is likely to chip away among veterans, just as I believe it will chip away at support with Republicans more broadly.”

Trump’s ordering of the killing of a top Iranian general, which briefly appeared to bring the United States to the edge of war with Iran early this year, was a disappointment to the many veterans and service members who had supported him in part for his promise to end U.S. involvement in overseas conflicts.

“The news of wanting to deploy the military domestically has caused a huge sense of outrage among most families I know,” said Sarah Streyder, director of the Secure Families Initiative, a group that calls for the withdrawal of troops from abroad. “A lot of military families live on Facebook. Social media is very important for this transient community.”

Numerous military spouses concurred. “From what I see from my friends communicating online, spouses have grown much more vocal in opposition to policies,” said Kate Marsh Lord, a Democrat who is married to a member of the Air Force and lives in Virginia but votes in Ohio. “I have seen more spouses speak out on issues of race and lack of leadership than in my entire 15 years as a military spouse.”

Roughly 40% of active-duty service people and reserves are people of color, underlining how the current moment has affected military families.

“People took offense that they were using the military to calm peaceful protests by people of color who were out on the streets,” said Jerry Green, who served in the Army until 1998 and now lives in Tampa, Florida. “When I saw that whole thing unfold, for me, personally, it was awful. I was really distraught.” Green, who is black, will not be supporting Trump, whom he once found interesting, he said.

In North Carolina, Cal Cunningham, a Democrat and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve who is challenging Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican, is working to capitalize on the military and veteran vote in his state, where Trump recently diverted millions of dollars for military installments to pay for a wall at the Mexican border after Congress blocked its funding.

“Cal’s profile as a military veteran is quite powerful in a state with so many veterans and military members,” said Rachel Petri, a spokeswoman for Cunningham, “not only in communicating with them but also with independent and swing voters who see the military and veterans as part of the state’s DNA.”

Other Democratic groups around the nation are also seeking leverage with the military vote. “We believe that Trump’s support within the military, with military families and with veterans, is soft and receding,” said Jon Soltz, a founder of VoteVets, which has been increasingly successful in electing Democratic veterans. “Our plan for the fall is simple: We’re putting together the most comprehensive, data-driven veteran and military family get-out-the-vote operation the Democratic Party has ever seen, and we will deploy it to ensure Donald Trump is a one-term president.”

-The New York Times-

Military spending saw biggest increase in a decade in 2019: study

STOCKHOLM - Global military expenditure saw its biggest uptick in a decade in 2019, researchers said Monday, marking the first year two Asian countries were among the top three spenders. 

The world's nations spent a combined $1.9 trillion (1.78 trillion euros) on their militaries in 2019, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Compared to 2018, that represented an annual growth of 3.6 percent, the largest spending growth since 2010.

"Military spending has reached the highest point since the end of the Cold War," Nan Tian, a researcher at SIPRI, told AFP.

Driving the increase are the world's largest spenders, headed by the US, which spent $732 billion in 2019, a 5.3 percent increase, alone accounting for 38 percent of global spending.

2019 marked the second year of growth in US military spending after seven years of decline.

For the first time, two Asian countries were among the top three, with China and India spending an estimated $261 billion (up 5.1 percent) and $71.1 billion (up 6.8 percent) respectively.

While Chinese expenditure over the past 25 years has closely followed the country's rapid economic expansion, their investments also reflect their ambition of a "world class military".

"China has openly stated that they want to essentially compete with the US as a military superpower," Tian said.

China's ascent also in part helped explain India's rise.

"India's tensions and rivalry with both Pakistan and China are among the major drivers for its increased military spending," SIPRI researcher Siemon Wezeman said in a statement.

VIRUS IMPACT

The world's top five spenders, which also included Russia and Saudi Arabia, together accounted for over 60 percent of total military expenditure.

According to SIPRI, other notable developments included Germany, which increased spending by 10 percent in 2019 to $49.3 billion, the largest percentual increase of all the top 15 spenders.

Germany's increased spending could in part be explained by an increased perception of threat from Russia, according to the report's authors.

While Tian noted that "military spending growth has accelerated in recent years," he also told AFP that this trend could be reversed as a result of the new coronavirus pandemic, and its economic fallout.


As the world heads for a potential global recession, Tian argued that governments will have to weigh military spending against other sectors, such as healthcare and education. 

"It's highly likely that this will really have an impact on military spending," Tian said.

Looking at the historical data, that fall in spending would however likely not last, according to Tian who recalled the financial crisis of 2008, when military spending fell in subsequent years as countries, especially in Europe, imposed austerity measures.

"We could be looking at one to three years of declining spending and then an uptick again in the years to come," Tian told AFP.

Agence France-Presse

US accuses Russia of breaking 'Open Skies' treaty

WASHINGTON - US Defense Secretary Mark Esper accused Russia Wednesday of violating the Open Skies Treaty designed to improve transparency and confidence between the militaries of the two superpowers.

Esper told a congressional hearing Russia had been blocking the United States from conducting flights over the Baltic Sea city of Kaliningrad and near Georgia that are permitted by the 18-year-old agreement.

"We've also been denied access to military exercise overflights," he said. "I have a lot of concerns about the treaty as it stands now."

The deal, which has 32 other signatories, permits one country's military to conduct a certain number of surveillance flights over another each year on short notice.

The aircraft can survey the territory below, collecting information and pictures of military installations and activities.

The idea is that the more rival militaries know about each other, the lower the chances of conflict.

Esper said he raised the issue last month in the meeting with NATO defense ministers.

"This is important to many of our NATO allies, that they have the means to conduct the overflights," he said.

The Pentagon operates two old OC-135 aircraft for the overflight operations, and Esper acknowledged the need to update the aircraft, even if the Pentagon has not set aside the cash.

"At this point time, until we make a final decision on the path forward, I'm not prepared to recapitalize aircraft," he said.

Agence France-Presse

Four wounded in attack on Iraqi military base that houses US forces

TIKRIT, Iraq - Four people were wounded on Sunday in an attack on Balad air base in northern Iraq which houses US personnel.

The Iraqi military said in a statement that eight Katyusha rockets had been fired at the base, about 80 km (50 miles) north of the capital Baghdad, and that the four wounded included two officers.

Military sources identified the wounded as Iraqi soldiers. They said seven mortar bombs had hit the base's runway.

There was no word of any US casualties among the U.S. forces at the base.

The Iraqi military statement did not say who was behind the attack and made no mention of heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, which last Wednesday fired missiles at two military bases in Iraq which house US forces. 

(Reporting by Ghazwan Hassan writing by Hesham Abdul Khalek; Editing by Susan Fenton and Timothy Heritage)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Amazon alleges Trump abused power in huge Pentagon contract

SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon is alleging that US President Donald Trump abused the power of his office to deny the company a massive military cloud computing contract, court documents released Monday showed.

The technology giant is challenging the awarding of a $10 billion Pentagon cloud computing contract to Microsoft, alleging "unmistakable bias" in the process.

The 10-year contract for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure program, better known as JEDI, ultimately will see all military branches sharing information in a system boosted by artificial intelligence.

A heavily redacted filing detailed alleged errors that ended with Microsoft being chosen over its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing division, part of the technology group led by Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, a frequent target of the US president.

"They were the result of improper pressure from President Donald J. Trump, who launched repeated public and behind-the-scenes attacks to steer the JEDI contract away from AWS to harm his perceived political enemy -- Jeffrey P. Bezos," the filing maintained.

"DoD's substantial and pervasive errors are hard to understand and impossible to assess separate and apart from the president's repeatedly expressed determination to, in the words of the president himself, 'screw Amazon.'"

The bid protest filed in US Court of Federal Claims urges that the rival JEDI bids be re-evaluated and a new decision reached.

"The question is whether the president of the United States should be allowed to use the budget of DoD to pursue his own personal and political ends," Amazon said.

Amazon was considered the lead contender to provide technology for JEDI, with AWS dominating the cloud computing arena and the company already providing classified servers for other government outfits including the CIA.

But the Pentagon delayed awarding the hefty contract, saying the process would be reviewed by newly appointed Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who was selected by Trump.

A recent book on the tenure of Esper's predecessor James Mattis, written by his speechwriter Guy Snodgrass, contends that Trump told Mattis to "screw Amazon" out of the contract.

The Pentagon has maintained that the bidding process was fair and in keeping with the normal way of awarding contracts.

"There were no external influences on the source selection decision," defense spokeswoman Elissa Smith said in response to an AFP inquiry.

"The department is confident in the JEDI award and remains focused on getting this critical capability into the hands of our war-fighters as quickly and efficiently as possible. "

Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Amazon and company founder Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post. The newspaper is among US media outlets most critical in its coverage of Trump and his administration.

Agence France-Presse 

Trump fires US Navy chief over handling of discipline case

WASHINGTON- The chief of the US Navy on Sunday criticized Donald Trump after being sacked in a dispute over an elite SEAL commando whose demotion for misconduct was reversed by the president.

Richard Spencer was ousted as Navy Secretary, a civilian position, in a case that has fueled reports that the US military leadership has been angered by Trump's interference in discipline cases.

"I no longer share the same understanding with the Commander in Chief who appointed me, in regards to the key principles of good order and discipline," Spencer said in a stinging letter published by US media.

"I hereby acknowledge my termination as United States Secretary of the Navy."

The dispute centers on the fate of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher who was accused of war crimes in a high-profile case but was found guilty of a lesser offense.

On Nov. 15, Trump -- the commander-in-chief of the US military -- reversed the demotion handed down to Gallagher.

Trump tweeted on Sunday that Gallagher had been "treated very badly" by the navy and that Spencer had been asked to resign over the issue and over his alleged failure to address budget overruns.

The president said Gallagher would not be expelled from the elite SEAL (Sea, Air, and Land) force.

"Eddie will retire peacefully with all of the honors that he has earned," Trump tweeted.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he had asked for Spencer's resignation "after losing trust and confidence in him regarding his lack of candor over conversations with the White House," the Department of Defense said in a statement.

Esper said he was "deeply troubled by this conduct."

TRUMP UNDERCUTS MILITARY?

The US Navy had launched a discipline procedure that could have strip Gallagher and 3 other members of his unit of their prestigious "Trident pins" -- effectively booting them from the SEAL force.

But Trump's interventions appeared to cut short that process.

The president this month also dismissed a second-degree murder conviction against Army First Lieutenant Clint Lorance, who was 6 years into a 19-year term for ordering soldiers in 2012 to fire on 3 unarmed Afghan men on a motorcycle, 2 of whom died.

And he granted clemency to West Point graduate Matt Golsteyn, an ex-member of the elite US Army Green Berets, charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of an alleged Taliban bomb-maker in 2010.

Gallagher, a Navy SEAL commando, was accused in the stabbing to death of a wounded Islamic State prisoner in Iraq in 2017, attempted murder of other civilians and obstruction of justice.

In July, he was acquitted of charges related to those accusations but was convicted of posing with the slain fighter's body in a group picture with other SEALs.

As a result, he was demoted one rank, from chief petty officer to petty officer first class.

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Gallagher accused the navy of acting in retaliation after he lodged a complaint.

"They could have taken my Trident (pin) at any time they wanted," he said. "Now they're trying to take it after the president restored my rank."

Gallagher's case has been strongly championed by Fox News and Trump's conservative base.

But it has also drawn criticism that the president was undermining the military judicial process.

In his letter to Trump on Sunday, Spencer said that he could not "in good conscience obey an order that I believe violates the sacred oath I took... to support and defend the Constitution."

He added that maintaining good order and discipline in the navy's ranks was a "deadly seriously business." 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Hong Kong medics join protests against perceived police brutality

HONG KONG - Hundreds of Hong Kong medical workers and other anti-government protesters rallied in the Chinese-ruled city's financial center on Saturday, angry at perceived police brutality during more than four months of sometimes violent unrest.

Pro-democracy activists have attacked police with petrol bombs and rocks and shone lasers in their eyes. One officer was slashed in the neck with a knife.

Police have responded with tear gas, water cannon, rubber bullets and occasional live rounds, wounding several protesters, many of whom received treatment from volunteer first aiders at the roadside.

A 26-year-old nurse, who gave his name only as Stephen, said police would often come into the hospital where he works on the Kowloon peninsula and stand outside the wards or search for protesters in the accident and emergency department.

"Sometimes they bring their guns and weapons. The patients may be scared. This is not good practice," he said. "The protesters have injuries. This searching must be done after they are healed."

He said he worked as a first aider at protest sites in his spare time.

"I didn't tell any of my supervisors - only some colleagues with the same values," he said. "...But when I see people injured, I have to provide first aid."

Police deny accusations of brutality, saying they have shown utmost restraint in life-threatening situations and issue warnings to protesters with color-coded signs before they respond with tear gas or baton charges.

Protesters are angry about what they see as creeping Chinese interference in Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula intended to guarantee freedoms that are not enjoyed on the mainland.

China denies meddling. It has accused foreign governments, including the United States and Britain, of inciting the unrest.

The demonstrators gathered peacefully on Saturday, occasionally chanting "Hong Kong people, resist."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Six men tell their stories of sexual assault in the US military

Sexual assault in the military is a problem widely recognized but poorly understood. Elected officials and Pentagon leaders have tended to focus on the thousands of women who have been preyed upon while in uniform. But over the years, more of the victims have been men.

On average, about 10,000 men are sexually assaulted in the American military each year, according to Pentagon statistics.

Overwhelmingly, the victims are young and low-ranking. Many struggle afterward, are kicked out of the military and have trouble finding their footing in civilian life.

For decades, the fallout from the vast majority of male sexual assaults in uniform was silence: Silence of victims too humiliated to report the crime, silence of authorities unequipped to pursue it, silence of commands that believed no problem existed, and silence of families too ashamed to protest.

Women face a much higher rate of sexual assault in the military — about seven times that of men. But there are so many more men than women in the ranks that the total numbers of male and female victims in recent years have been roughly similar, according to Pentagon statistics — about 10,000 a year. And before women were fully integrated into the armed services, the bulk of the victims were men.

For generations, the military wasn’t looking for male sexual assault victims, so it failed to see them, according to Nathan W. Galbreath, deputy director of the Defense Department’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office. Only in 2006, after the office began surveying service members, he said, did the military learn that at least as many men as women were being assaulted.

“That was surprising to senior leadership,” Galbreath said.

“Everyone was so sure the problem was a women’s issue.”

A report published in May indicates that while the share of male victims who come forward has been rising recently, an estimated 4 out of 5 still do not report the attack.

For tens of thousands of veterans who were assaulted in the past, the progress made in recent years offers little comfort. The damage has already been done. Many have seen their lives buckle under the weight of loathing and bitterness, and have seen decades pass before what happened to them was acknowledged by anyone — including themselves.

Here are the stories of six of those men. The Department of Veterans Affairs has reviewed each man’s case and formally recognized him as a victim of service-connected sexual assault. The military branches in which each man served were asked to comment for this article, but declined to discuss specific cases.

PAUL LLOYD, 30
Enlisted in the Army National Guard, assaulted in 2007

Paul Lloyd was pushing a cart through the supermarket near his home in Salt Lake City, looking for light bulbs, when he stopped to sniff a variety of scented candles on a nearby shelf. Suddenly his hands were over his face, and he sank to the floor, sobbing.

One candle smelled just like the shampoo he had been using in the shower at Army basic training in 2007, when he was beaten and raped by another recruit.

“Some little thing can happen, and you’re back in that little 3-by-3 square shower,” he said later. “It’s hell, and there’s no escape from it.”

Lloyd joined the Army National Guard at 17. When he was assaulted in the shower one night after everyone else had gone to bed, he said, he told no one. Even when he ended up in the hospital the next day with internal bleeding and a torn rectum, and doctors asked him what had happened, Lloyd, who was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he simply shrugged.

“I felt like I couldn’t say anything,” he said. “I would look like a total failure — to my family, to my platoon, to myself.”

During the years when Lloyd was in the Army, only 3% of male victims reported sexual assaults, according to Defense Department estimates. The percentage has increased nearly sixfold since then, but the vast majority of men who are sexually assaulted still never report it.

Lloyd earned top scores in marksmanship and physical fitness, and wanted a career in the military, but he said a sense of betrayal and disgust at being raped started to gnaw at him. When he was given leave for Christmas, he decided not to return. He hid out at his sister’s house for a month before the National Guard found him. He was taken back to boot camp and eventually discharged for misconduct.

At home, he told no one about the attack. He stopped going to church, he said, fell into drinking and struggled to hold a job. He questioned his own sexuality. His family wondered why he couldn’t keep his act together.

It took five years for him to decide to tell them what had happened.

"They saw me as broken for a long time,” he said. “When I told them I’d been raped, they said, ‘Finally, it all makes sense.’ ”



BILL MINNIX, 64
Enlisted in the Air Force, assaulted in 1973

Bill Minnix was too ashamed to tell his family why he was kicked out of the Air Force in 1973, and they were too ashamed to ask.

What would people at church say? What would the neighbors think?
He didn’t speak a word to anyone about having been raped, he said — not for the next 40 years.

He had enlisted at 17, and was a few weeks into radar technician school when a group of older enlisted men and officers took some new recruits to an off-base resort. In a private bungalow, after a round of drinking, Minnix said, the older men told the recruits it was time for their initiation.

“At first there was laughing and nervous joking, and then there was silence,” Minnix said. “I was scared to death. And we got forced into sex acts none of us wanted.” He said the teenagers were made to perform oral sex or were sodomized. “What an awful thing, when you go back to the base the next day and you are facing these people,” he said.

Minnix struggled to make sense of what had happened in the bungalow. Real men don’t get raped, he told himself, they fight back. He found he was unable to concentrate on his work, and started to do poorly in radar school. He was desperate to get out of the Air Force.

“I couldn’t stand being there,” said Minnix, who lives in Bend, Oregon. “I didn’t feel I could report it to anyone. The best thing to do was run.”

He sighed and added, “I’ve essentially been running for most of my life since then.”

Minnix deserted, was caught a week later, and then deserted again. The Air Force put him in jail and threatened to prosecute him if he didn’t agree to leave the service voluntarily with a less-than-honorable discharge. He took the discharge.

Once he was out, he spent most of his adult life in what he calls “a black box,” shut off from the world by anger and shame. He burned through jobs and two marriages, drinking to numb his own loathing.

His parents never spoke to him again. They died not knowing the truth.

In recent years, through counseling provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Minnix has been able to come to terms with what happened. He has remarried and has joined a local veterans’ group called the Oregon Band of Brothers. He drove his Jeep in the local Veterans Day parade in 2018.

"That filled a big void for me,” he said. “I had military service taken away from me. For years, when I heard the anthem or saw the parades, I would cry. I can feel like a veteran now.”

HEATH PHILLIPS, 48
Enlisted in the Navy, assaulted in 1988

Heath Phillips stepped in front of a crowd of hundreds of soldiers at Fort Hood in central Texas. He took a breath, and then shared a secret that had gnawed at him for 25 years.

“My name is Heath Phillips,” he said, “and I was sexually assaulted when I was in the United States Navy.”

In 1988, when Phillips was 17, he arrived at his first ship, and a group of sailors offered to take him out for a night on the town.

They traveled to Manhattan, he said, and he woke up on the floor of a hotel room to see one of the men ejaculating on his face while others were trying to pull off his pants. Phillips writhed out of their grip and locked himself in a bathroom.

He reported the attack to the ship’s master at arms the next day, he said, but the master at arms just looked at him skeptically.

“Were you drinking?” Phillips recalls him saying. “Do you know that you can get in trouble for underage drinking?”

Phillips said he was sent back to his bunk in the bowels of the ship, where he slept just a few feet from the attackers. For months, he said, they beat and raped him repeatedly.

Phillips said he went to the master at arms again and again, often with black eyes and split lips, to complain about the abuse.

“He always accused me of lying,” Phillips recalled. “He would say I had no proof. I think he just didn’t want to deal with it.”

Phillips deserted, was arrested and sent back to the ship, and deserted again, and again. Eventually he was forced out of the Navy with an other-than-honorable discharge for running away so many times.

For decades, he said, he told no one else what had happened to him. But in 2009, he received counseling at a veterans’ hospital, and came to realize that silence might only allow assaults in the military to go on unchecked.

He became a vocal member of advocacy groups and met with lawmakers. A congressional investigation supported his account. And he started telling his story at military bases — something that petrified him at first, but that he now sees as a vital part of healing.

“I got my military career cut short, and that’s not right,” he said after addressing the soldiers at Fort Hood. “But I still love the military. By speaking out, I am serving in a different way.”

BILLY JOE CAPSHAW, 56
Enlisted in the Air Force, assaulted in 1980

The few years Billy Joe Capshaw spent in the Army were the worst years of his life, he said, but to this day he wears an Army veteran baseball cap. He said it deflects unwanted questions from strangers about the marks on his face.

“It explains the scars,” he said. “They don’t ask.”

In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested and confessed to raping and killing 17 young men and boys, some of whom he then dismembered and ate. The news media soon learned that Capshaw had been Dahmer’s roommate in the Army, and descended on Hot Springs, Arkansas, where Capshaw lives.

At a news conference before a bank of reporters, Capshaw described the heavy-metal posters Dahmer decorated their room with, and the W.C. Fields jokes Dahmer liked to tell.

But he did not mention the vials of lorazepam and ketamine that he said Dahmer often used to sedate him. Or the metal bar he said Dahmer used to beat him, or the motor-pool rope to tie him down, or the scars, still visible on Capshaw’s cheeks after nearly 40 years, from Dahmer trying to muffle his screams with a clenched hand.

“I couldn’t,” Capshaw recalled, shaking his head, in an interview this spring. “You say you’ve been raped by another man, people blame you, they shame you. They just don’t get how something like this can happen.”

Capshaw joined the Army at 17 and was stationed at Baumholder Army Garrison in Germany in 1980 when he was assigned to share a room with Dahmer, who was then an Army medic.

Within days, he said, Dahmer was beating him, drugging him and keeping him locked in their room. At one point, Capshaw jumped from the second-story window to escape, and ended up in the hospital with a cracked pelvis. But he never said a word about what was going on, even to the doctor who examined him.

“It developed into a Stockholm syndrome-type situation,” Capshaw said. “He totally controlled me. He didn’t let me leave the room. He would beat me and rape me. But we would also play chess, he would buy me books and suture up my wounds. I don’t know how to explain it.”

Dahmer was discharged from the military in 1981 for alcohol abuse. Capshaw was discharged a few months later, his military record shows.

For five years after his discharge, Capshaw said, he didn’t leave his mother’s house. He stayed awake for days at a time trying to stave off nightmares, so tense that he could barely swallow solid food. He didn’t tell his family what had happened. In a small town, he worried, he’d never be able to get out from under the whisperings if word got out.

“For a long time, the only person I ever told was my best friend, and his response was, ‘I’ll never tell anybody,’” Capshaw said. “He didn’t, neither. That’s a pretty good friend — he knew it would hurt me, it would get around.”

After years of therapy, Capshaw decided in 2010 that hiding what happened would not help him. With the assistance of his psychiatrist, he created a website to tell the story of what he had gone through and how he had begun to heal.

JACK WILLIAMS, 71
Enlisted in the Air Force, assaulted in 1966

“If you report this, no one will believe you,” an Air Force drill sergeant told Jack Williams in boot camp.

It was 2 a.m. in the sergeant’s office, Williams recalled. The sergeant had just choked Williams, who was 18, until he passed out, he said, and then had raped him over a desk while dozens of other recruits slept in the next room.

It was 1966. The military had no response and prevention program, as it does today, and there were no protections for troops who reported assaults. Homosexuality was not just forbidden in the ranks, it was seen as a national security threat.

“If you came forward and said you were raped, people would have thought you were a queer or a child molester — you were treated like it was your fault,” said Williams, who now lives in Everett, Washington.

After the attack, Williams said, he did all that he felt he could do. He took a shower and went back to bed.

The sergeant raped him twice more during basic training, he said. Each time, Williams stayed quiet, determined to make it through boot camp.

But as soon as Williams graduated, he reported what had happened to Air Force authorities, expecting them to jail his attacker and start an investigation.

The anger still trembles in his voice decades later when he describes the Air Force’s response.

“No investigator ever called me,” he said. “Nothing was ever done.”

Instead, his chain of command began to complain about his performance, he said, because the rapes had left him with damaged kidneys and a torn rectum, and because he was missing too much training in order to get treatment. He was soon forced out of the Air Force for being medically unfit, his service record shows.

Today, veterans like Williams are coming forward in growing numbers to demand that the Department of Veterans Affairs provide treatment and compensation for the harm done to them.

Some 61,000 veterans, including Williams, are now formally recognized by the department as having been sexually traumatized during their service, and the number of claims filed each year has surged by 70% since 2010.

A monthly check is poor compensation, though, for decades spent in limbo.

“I had a future, I wanted to serve my country, and I was good at what I did,” Williams said. “That was all taken away from me.”

ETHAN HANSON, 29
Enlisted in the Marine Corps, assaulted in 2014

Ethan Hanson has avoided taking showers since he left the Marine Corps in 2014. Instead, he runs an inch and a half of warm water in a bathtub, then rinses quickly with a plastic cup, with each splash evoking a painful moan.

“When I do come into contact with steam, hot water, anything that makes my skin slippery,” he said as he looked around the bathroom in his house in Austin, Minnesota, “honestly, it makes me want to vomit.”

Hanson was one of a group of Marine recruits who were sexually assaulted in the showers during boot camp at Camp Pendleton, California. Like many of the sexual assaults on servicemen, it was a hazing exercise, meant to humiliate and intimidate young troops.

According to a Rand Corp. study, 1 in 3 men who are sexually assaulted in the military describe the offense as hazing or bullying — twice the rate reported by women who are sexually assaulted.

It happened to Hanson after an exhausting morning running the obstacle course. The platoon was showering when a drill instructor marched into the steamy room, angry that he had heard talking.

He ordered the 60 naked recruits to pack themselves into a tight line against the wall, genitals pressed up against backsides. After holding them in that position for several minutes, he ordered them to run to the other side of the room and line up again, then back to the first side.

“It was back and forth for more than an hour,” Hanson said.

In the following days, several of the recruits reported the episode to their chain of command, and the drill instructor was prosecuted.

Hanson has a copy of the Marine Corps investigative report confirming that the episode took place.

Hanson graduated from basic training and tried to move on, but soon afterward he saw a Marine dressed like the drill instructor, and had a panic attack.

He told his superiors that he was suicidal, and was sent to a Navy hospital. But when his mental health did not improve after four weeks, the Marine Corps forced him out of the service, noting on his discharge papers that it was for “failure to adapt to military life.”

“It’s their way of saying, it’s my fault, not theirs,” Hanson said of the discharge. “If I was injured in training, they would have to treat me and compensate me. But they said this was a preexisting condition.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs has since formally recognized his case as one of service-connected sexual trauma.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

US military likely to ramp up operations against Taliban: US general

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- The US military is likely to accelerate the pace of its operations in Afghanistan to counter an increase in Taliban attacks, a senior US general said following Washington's suspension of peace talks with the insurgents.

US Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, the head of US Central Command, said during a visit to Afghanistan that the Taliban overplayed its hand in peace negotiations by carrying out a spate of high-profile attacks, including one that killed a US soldier last week.

The Taliban, which controls more territory than at any time since 2001 when it governed the country, said on Sunday that more American lives would be lost.

McKenzie declined to comment on the Taliban statement. But he noted that US troops in Afghanistan were hardly "defenseless."

"We're certainly not going to sit still and let them carry out some self-described race to victory. That's not going to happen," McKenzie told a group of reporters traveling with him during a stop at Bagram Airfield in northeastern Afghanistan.

Airstrikes by US-led international forces and Afghanistan’s small air force already are at a high level - a Sept. 3 United Nations report said there had been 506 between May 10 and Aug. 8, a 57 percent increase from the same period in 2018.

Asked whether increasing operations against the Taliban could include airstrikes and raids by US and Afghan commandos, McKenzie responded: "I think we're talking a total spectrum."

"And, again, whatever targets are available, whatever targets can be lawfully and ethically struck, I think we're going to pursue those targets," he said.

Any increase in US military action would correspond to an acceleration of Taliban attacks, McKenzie said.

The insurgents' determination to step up both attacks on provincial centers and suicide bombings even as discussions were taking place was a major factor in pushing US President Donald Trump to announce on Saturday that he was canceling peace talks aimed at ending America's longest war of 18 years.

The halt to the negotiations has fueled fears of even more violence across Afghanistan, with heightened security warnings in the capital Kabul and other centers ahead of a presidential election scheduled for Sept. 28.

TALIBAN MISCALCULATION

Trump, a longtime critic of the Afghan war, and the billions of dollars it costs, had been preparing an unprecedented meeting with the insurgency's leaders at the presidential compound in Camp David, Maryland.

But he called off the event after the latest violence.

Trump on Monday said talks with Taliban leaders are "dead" but that he was still considering a US troop drawdown.

Reuters has reported on growing misgivings that had been building within Trump's administration about the peace deal negotiated by a special US envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad.

McKenzie said he believed the Taliban underestimated the delicate nature of the talks with Washington, even in their later stages.

"I think they overplayed their hand," McKenzie said. "They misjudged the character of the American people. I think they misjudged the character of the president of the United States."

The growing tension on the ground in Afghanistan adds to the uncertainty about the future course for American forces, many of whom must now simultaneously brace for an increase in fighting while also awaiting potential orders to withdraw.

The United States has about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan, a figure that Trump has said he would like to reduce to about 8,600.

A further intensification in airstrikes poses a grave risk of increasing civilian casualties - and fueling support for the Taliban - which were 39 percent higher for the first half of 2019 from the same period in 2018, a July UN report said.

A spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan disputed the methods and findings but declined to provide civilian casualty figures.

Asked what his message was in his talks on Monday with US special operations forces, medical teams and other personnel he visited at bases in Afghanistan, McKenzie told reporters that they would need to keep fighting the "hard fight" for now.

"We just have to hold the line right now," McKenzie said.

"We're going to make some decisions, I think, back in our nation's capital over the next few days and that will give us increased guidance going ahead," he added, without elaborating.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

UAE airstrikes raise tensions with Yemen gov't

DUBAI - The United Arab Emirates has confirmed it launched airstrikes on Yemen's interim capital Aden, after furious accusations from the internationally recognized government which has lost control of the city to UAE-backed separatists.

In the face of charges it targeted Yemeni government troops, Abu Dhabi said it acted in self-defense against "terrorist militias" threatening the Saudi-led military coalition against Huthi rebels in which the UAE is a key partner.

The UAE's foreign ministry issued a statement late Thursday, hours after the separatists regained control of Aden, forcing government troops who had entered the southern port city a day earlier to withdraw.

Airstrikes on Wednesday and Thursday that reportedly left dozens dead hit "armed groups affiliated with terrorist organizations", Abu Dhabi said, in a reference to Islamists it believes makeup part of Yemeni government forces.

The operation "was based on confirmed field intelligence that the militias prepared to target the coalition forces -- a development which required a preemptive operation to avert any military threat", it added.

The accusations risk straining an already complex conflict in Yemen, which is being fought on two main fronts -- a battle for control of Aden and the south, and the Saudi-led coalition's campaign against the Huthis in the north.

In further violence in the port city on Friday, a suicide bombing killed three separatist fighters, while a separatist military chief survived a roadside bomb that killed five of his guards, security sources said.

Blaming the attacks on Al-Qaeda, the security sources said separatist forces made several arrests, adding that they aimed to dismantle jihadist "sleeper cells".

But residents have reported arrests of soldiers loyal to the internationally recognized government. 

On August 1, separate attacks in Aden by jihadists and Huthi rebels killed 49 people, mostly separatist fighters from the Southern Transitional Council.

The STC accused the government of complicity in the attacks, sparking a showdown between the two sides.

The intensifying conflict between Abu Dhabi and the government undermines the coalition and poses a headache for regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, which is focused on fighting the Huthis who are aligned with Riyadh's arch-foe Iran.

The airstrikes came in a see-sawing battle between the government and southern separatists who have tussled for control of Aden and the neighboring provinces Abyan and Shabwa over the past three weeks.

Saudis as peacemakers?

Yemen's government on Thursday accused the UAE of mounting the airstrikes in support of the separatists, in an assault it said killed 40 combatants and wounded 70 civilians. 

The UAE, which has a zero-tolerance policy towards Islamists, believes that part of Yemen's army is made up of militants from Al-Islah, a party considered close to the Islamic Brotherhood.

The allegation was backed by its Yemeni ally, the head of the STC, Aidarus al-Zubaidi, who aims to regain independence for South Yemen, which was forcibly unified with the north in 1990. 

At a press conference in Aden on Thursday, he said that among fighters captured during the retaking of the city were "internationally wanted terrorists".

However, Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi redoubled his allegations against the UAE, accusing it late Thursday of having planned, financed and coordinated attacks on state institutions and military positions in Aden.

The Yemeni head of state, who is in exile in the Saudi capital, called on Riyadh to "intervene to halt the blatant interference of the United Arab Emirates, in support of the militias, and air raids against the armed forces of Yemen".

The UAE's minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, on Friday urged all sides to go back to the negotiating table under a Saudi proposal for talks in Jeddah.

Yemen's government has said the STC must first withdraw from its positions.

"The Saudi initiative is the way out of this crisis," Gargash said on Twitter.

The coalition intervened in Yemen's war in 2015 in support of the government after the Huthis swept south from their northern stronghold to seize the capital Sanaa and much of Yemen -- the Arab world's poorest nation.

The strategic port city of Aden has since then served as the government's interim capital. 

Fighting over the past four years has already claimed tens of thousands of lives and sparked what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

"The situation is very fragile. Families are again trapped in their homes by fighting, unable to secure food and reach medical care," the UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Lise Grande, said of the recent battle for the south.

The UN Security Council on Thursday voiced concern over the clashes, including what it called a "violent attempt to take over state institutions".

It urged all parties to "show restraint and to preserve Yemen's territorial integrity".

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Airbus pulls out of Canada fighter jet race, boosts Lockheed Martin's chances

OTTAWA - Airbus SE on Friday pulled out of a multibillion-dollar competition to supply Canada with 88 new fighter jets, a decision that boosts the chances of rival Lockheed Martin Corp.

The defense arm of Airbus, which indicated last month it might withdraw, cited onerous security requirements and a late decision by Ottawa to loosen the rules for how much bidders would have to invest in Canada.

Airbus and other contenders had already complained the government appeared to be tilting the race in favor of Lockheed Martin's F-35 plane, which the Royal Canadian Air Force wants. Canada is part of the consortium that developed the plane.

Canada launched the long-delayed competition last month and said it was confident no favoritism had been shown. Ottawa says the contract is worth between C$15 billion ($11.30 billion) and C$19 billion.

Canada's official opposition Conservative Party, which is seeking to defeat Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in an October election, accused the government of gross mismanagement.

Reuters revealed in July that Airbus and Boeing Co had written to Ottawa to say they might pull out.

The firms are unhappy that in late May, the government dropped a demand that bidders must guarantee to give Canadian businesses 100 percent of the value of the deal in economic benefits.

Such legally watertight commitments, which Boeing, Airbus and Sweden's Saab AB had already agreed to, contradict rules of the F-35 consortium. Ottawa's move allowed Lockheed Martin to stay in the competition.

"One of the strongest points of our bid was the fact we were willing to make binding commitments," said an Airbus source, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.

"Once this was loosened up to a point where these commitments were no longer valued in the same way," the firm decided "that's just too much," added the source, who also cited security challenges.

European jets must show they can meet stringent standards required by the United States, which with Canada operates the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

"NORAD security requirements continue to place too significant of a cost on platforms whose manufacture and repair chains sit outside the United States (and) Canada," Airbus said in a statement.

Canadian Procurement Minister Carla Qualtrough said she respected the Airbus decision, adding Ottawa was determined there should be a level playing field.

"This included adapting the economic benefits approach to ensure the highest level of participation among suppliers," she said in emailed comments.

Canada has been trying unsuccessfully for almost a decade to purchase replacements for its aging F-18 fighters. The former Conservative administration said in 2010 it would buy 65 F-35 jets but later scrapped the decision, triggering years of delays and reviews.

Trudeau's Liberals took power in 2015 vowing not to buy the F-35 on the grounds that it was too costly, but have since softened their line.

"Justin Trudeau has spent the past four years delaying and dithering on new fighter jets for Canada only to completely mismanage the competition process," said Conservative defense spokesperson James Bezan.

Lockheed Martin declined to comment while Boeing and Saab did not respond to requests for comment.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Amnesty International calls on S.Korea to end discrimination of gay soldiers

SEOUL - Amnesty International on Thursday called on South Korea to decriminalize same-sex relationships for men in the military, warning current laws fuel violence, discrimination and stigmatization against gay soldiers.

The human rights group said South Korea’s military code "does not comply with the international human rights obligations the state has signed on to".

"By institutionalizing discrimination, laws criminalizing sex between men reinforce systematic prejudices toward gay men, bisexual men, transgender people and non-binary people, whether in the military or in the street or in the home," Amnesty said in a report released on Thursday.

The South Korean ministry of defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in the past South Korea has defended the code as necessary to maintain discipline.

The Amnesty report comes as South Korea engages in a broader debate over the future of its conscript military force - with recent court rulings clearing the way for conscientious objectors and political leaders promising to shorten service commitments - as well as controversy over changing social norms.

Amnesty urged South Korea to repeal Article 92-6 of the Military Criminal Act, which it said effectively prohibited and punished sex between men in the military.

"The military code in South Korea allows the invasion of privacy of soldiers alleged to be engaging in sex between men both on and off base, and on or off duty," the report concluded.

"Decriminalisation does not solve the entire issue, but it is a crucial first step towards respecting, protecting and fulfilling the human rights of LGBTI people."

Homosexual activity is not criminalized for South Korean civilians, but same-sex couples do not have the right to marry of adopt.

In March, the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) submitted an amicus brief in a challenge to the military code now before South Korea's Constitutional Court, alleging that the code "violates many norms of international law".

"South Korea’s military sodomy law is a blight on the country’s human rights record and multiple human rights bodies have called for its abolition," Graeme Reid, the LGBT rights director at HRW, said at the time.

A survey of South Koreans released in March by the Academy of Korean Studies found about 45 percent of respondents were comfortable working around gay people, while less than 16 percent said they would be comfortable with a gay person in their family.

source: news.abs-cbn.com