Huynh Kim Anh weeps in front of the Gyeongsan police station yesterday. She wants a reinvestigation of her daughter's death. By Jung Ha-wonVietnamese bride's death haunts mother
March 14, 2008
By Jung Ha-won Staff Reporter
[hawon@joongang.co.kr]
JoongAng Daily (South Korea)
GYEONGSAN,North Gyeong-sang - A day before Tran Thanh Lan left Vietnam to meet her new husband in Korea, she handed a cheap, beat-up cell phone she bought at a nearby market to her tearful mother.
"Keep it close to your heart all the time, so that you can answer whenever I call," the young woman's mother, Huynh Kim Anh, recalled being told by her 22-year old daughter. "I'll call you every day."
That was the last time Huynh saw her only daughter, whom she raised alone after her husband abandoned her when she was six months pregnant. Six weeks later, Tran came home as a handful of ashes, along with $3,000 her husband sent as a token of condolence.
Huynh was left bereft and searching for explanations as to how and why Tran died so shortly after arriving in Korea. All she knew was that her daughter jumped - or somehow fell - on Feb. 6 from the 14th-floor balcony of the apartment she shared briefly with her husband in this city about 400 kilometers south of Seoul.
There was little further explanation and no prior consultation before Tran's body was cremated. Huynh is now in Korea, looking for answers to her daughter's mysterious death, which was initially ruled a suicide by local police, and marriage, which was arranged by a matchmaker and fell apart after only a week in Korea.
"I want to know exactly why and how she died. She is not the sort of person who would commit suicide," Huynh said yesterday during a protest in front of the Gyeongsan police station, which is investigating the matter. During the protest, organized by local civic groups, the willowy 46-year-old broke into loud sobs, calling out Tran's name.
"My daughter died because of the matchmaking agency. I want my baby back," she cried in Vietnamese.
The story began when Tran followed a path chosen by many other Vietnamese women and decided to escape from rural poverty by marrying a Korean man who would help support her family in exchange for companionship. Before, Huynh eked out a living selling sweet rice cakes at a village market; she had not even finished elementary school, her mother said, because of poverty.
In August 2007, the attractive young woman signed up with an agency that arranges marriages between Korean men and Vietnamese women. On Aug. 17, Tran met her future husband who was in Vietnam to search for a bride, and the two, as is typical of such brokered unions of convenience, married the next day. After a three-day honeymoon in Vietnam, the husband, whose last name was given as Ha by the police, returned to Korea while Tran prepared to leave for her new home.
"Tran said that after the marriage she might be able to work somewhere and send money to me," Huynh said. "I just told her to be nice to her future husband and his family."
Five months later, on Jan. 11, Tran went to Korea and called her mother on Jan. 12 and 13, crying incessantly. She did not explain, only saying that she missed her mother.
After that, the cell phone Tran gave to Huynh stopped ringing, and there were no more phone calls from Korea. On Feb. 9 the marriage broker in Vietnam called to say that Tran killed herself three days earlier and the husband wanted to cremate her body.
Huynh said she refused to give permission, but she did not know that Tran had already been cremated the day before.
Tran's husband, Ha, was unavailable for comment yesterday. However, according to the local police, he said that he contacted the matchmaker after Tran's death and was told by the broker that the mother had agreed to the cremation. During the investigation, police said, Ha told them his new wife did not adjust well to her new family and that she slept a lot and did not do her chores. The two, lacking a common language, had no way to communicate.
Just a week after Tran's arrival in Korea, the couple filed for divorce and a short time later Tran bought a ticket for a flight back to Vietnam. A day later, she plunged to her death from the balcony.
"The circumstantial evidence indicated it was a suicide," said a senior Gyeongsan police officer who refused to be named. Further forensic examination is impossible since the body was cremated at her husband's request, he said. "We are still investigating. The case is not closed."
Little is known about what happened during the six weeks before Tran died. Her diary, written from Jan. 17 to 29, revealed the typical problems in marriages between rural Korean men and women from developing countries.
"My husband slapped me across my face," Tran wrote, "maybe because I didn't do the chores the way he taught me. But I still don't know what he's talking about."
The entries were mostly devoted to homesickness.
"I am counting the days before I go back to Vietnam. I miss my mother so much," another entry reads. The diary ends on Jan. 29, a week before Tran died.
The Vietnamese Embassy in Seoul also investigated. They said they are awaiting more information from police. Huynh has not yet contacted the embassy, according to the first secretary, Son Hung.
Tran's story made headlines not only in Vietnam but also in neighboring Cambodia, another source of foreign brides, according to Phuoo Hanh, a reporter for a Vietnamese newspaper who accompanied Tran's mother to Korea. The trip was financed by a Vietnamese entrepreneur who took pity on the woman after the story was widely reported in Vietnam.
"Everyone wants to know what happened and the Korean government needs to give more time and resources to help Vietnamese brides adapt to new environments," the reporter said.
"Keep it close to your heart all the time, so that you can answer whenever I call," the young woman's mother, Huynh Kim Anh, recalled being told by her 22-year old daughter. "I'll call you every day."
That was the last time Huynh saw her only daughter, whom she raised alone after her husband abandoned her when she was six months pregnant. Six weeks later, Tran came home as a handful of ashes, along with $3,000 her husband sent as a token of condolence.
Huynh was left bereft and searching for explanations as to how and why Tran died so shortly after arriving in Korea. All she knew was that her daughter jumped - or somehow fell - on Feb. 6 from the 14th-floor balcony of the apartment she shared briefly with her husband in this city about 400 kilometers south of Seoul.
There was little further explanation and no prior consultation before Tran's body was cremated. Huynh is now in Korea, looking for answers to her daughter's mysterious death, which was initially ruled a suicide by local police, and marriage, which was arranged by a matchmaker and fell apart after only a week in Korea.
"I want to know exactly why and how she died. She is not the sort of person who would commit suicide," Huynh said yesterday during a protest in front of the Gyeongsan police station, which is investigating the matter. During the protest, organized by local civic groups, the willowy 46-year-old broke into loud sobs, calling out Tran's name.
"My daughter died because of the matchmaking agency. I want my baby back," she cried in Vietnamese.
The story began when Tran followed a path chosen by many other Vietnamese women and decided to escape from rural poverty by marrying a Korean man who would help support her family in exchange for companionship. Before, Huynh eked out a living selling sweet rice cakes at a village market; she had not even finished elementary school, her mother said, because of poverty.
In August 2007, the attractive young woman signed up with an agency that arranges marriages between Korean men and Vietnamese women. On Aug. 17, Tran met her future husband who was in Vietnam to search for a bride, and the two, as is typical of such brokered unions of convenience, married the next day. After a three-day honeymoon in Vietnam, the husband, whose last name was given as Ha by the police, returned to Korea while Tran prepared to leave for her new home.
"Tran said that after the marriage she might be able to work somewhere and send money to me," Huynh said. "I just told her to be nice to her future husband and his family."
Five months later, on Jan. 11, Tran went to Korea and called her mother on Jan. 12 and 13, crying incessantly. She did not explain, only saying that she missed her mother.
After that, the cell phone Tran gave to Huynh stopped ringing, and there were no more phone calls from Korea. On Feb. 9 the marriage broker in Vietnam called to say that Tran killed herself three days earlier and the husband wanted to cremate her body.
Huynh said she refused to give permission, but she did not know that Tran had already been cremated the day before.
Tran's husband, Ha, was unavailable for comment yesterday. However, according to the local police, he said that he contacted the matchmaker after Tran's death and was told by the broker that the mother had agreed to the cremation. During the investigation, police said, Ha told them his new wife did not adjust well to her new family and that she slept a lot and did not do her chores. The two, lacking a common language, had no way to communicate.
Just a week after Tran's arrival in Korea, the couple filed for divorce and a short time later Tran bought a ticket for a flight back to Vietnam. A day later, she plunged to her death from the balcony.
"The circumstantial evidence indicated it was a suicide," said a senior Gyeongsan police officer who refused to be named. Further forensic examination is impossible since the body was cremated at her husband's request, he said. "We are still investigating. The case is not closed."
Little is known about what happened during the six weeks before Tran died. Her diary, written from Jan. 17 to 29, revealed the typical problems in marriages between rural Korean men and women from developing countries.
"My husband slapped me across my face," Tran wrote, "maybe because I didn't do the chores the way he taught me. But I still don't know what he's talking about."
The entries were mostly devoted to homesickness.
"I am counting the days before I go back to Vietnam. I miss my mother so much," another entry reads. The diary ends on Jan. 29, a week before Tran died.
The Vietnamese Embassy in Seoul also investigated. They said they are awaiting more information from police. Huynh has not yet contacted the embassy, according to the first secretary, Son Hung.
Tran's story made headlines not only in Vietnam but also in neighboring Cambodia, another source of foreign brides, according to Phuoo Hanh, a reporter for a Vietnamese newspaper who accompanied Tran's mother to Korea. The trip was financed by a Vietnamese entrepreneur who took pity on the woman after the story was widely reported in Vietnam.
"Everyone wants to know what happened and the Korean government needs to give more time and resources to help Vietnamese brides adapt to new environments," the reporter said.
18 comments:
Thats whay I heard too in Cambodia. Some people were married and sponsored over to live in Taiwan, Malaysia, S-Korea and China and were mistreat(ed) very harsh. One story in Malaysia there were two sisters working as maid and over worked day and night and were abused one of them were dead and the one that live called home asking her mother to do somthing to bring her back. I am telling you if you want to go abroad, don't go to Asian country. They don't have great respect on human rights. They still as poor respect as Cambodia too. You rather one to go to Europe or Australia and North America. They are much better.
I agree! America is the best! it has a system in place for check and balance! Cambodian ladies, stay with your family don't marry other Asian country guys. If you have to look up American citizens!
Its possible that the ashes is just a body-double or someone elses ashes. She is probably transferred to a brothel to work as a sex-slave. The husband is very questionable, cremating her before consulting the mother or any affiliates, and most likely using a fake name. This organization should be investigated.
LIKE TRY CATCH A GOLDEN GOOS!
Only a week ago that Cambodia had to shut down two Korean match making agencies for the same reason of human trafficking. Be ware of those bad guys out there. Bad people are all over the world.
Vietnamese doesn't just commit suicide and leave their family.
This case sounds rather fishy. I think it's organize crime related.
this is sad.......I feel sad when I read this story, what if the person is related to me how would i feel? I think she was murdered. She missed her mum badly....I'm sure she didn't kill herself.
I agree most Asian countries have no respect for human rights, especially the women rights. and Cambodia is no exception.
That is so unfair of you to put us (Asian) down from a single case of unsolved homicide, 12:02.
What you should know is most abuse is learnt from someone. We didn't born with that, and you know fair well that Korean people is very westernized.
All these dirt poor women are falling pray to fucken sexual perverted predator!
There are so many fucken sexual perverted predators Asian monkey out there!
This is a good message to all Cambodian women (bride) and please sticks to something you know well!
What you don't know can hurt or even kill you!
Oh, stop blow a few nightmares out of proportion. Many of them are doing great, and they managed to help their family back home to a better life. Thus, it's worth the risk if you can't hack poverty, but don't do it because of greed.
My condolence to Tran's mother. A lot of our Khmer women are in simular situation, tricked to work oversea and become sex slave, tricked to marry a foreigner and also sex slave. Khmer women are badly treated in neighboring country, and the stories turn to close ears and eyes at the Cambodian embassy in that country.
10:29, we do not turn our back on our people, but the situation in Cambodia call for us to allow people to take some risk. There have not been enough job for everyone here yet. So to keep them from taking risk is not good either. It is violating Human Right.
2:11 is right sticking to someone you know or stay with your family. Life is too precious. I am suprised to see how the Korean investigators are so taking in by the husband's story. You won't see such a thing in western countries.
11:30, just because you can't see bad things in the west, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Agree 455pm
11:22, I hope you're right that our Cambodian government does not turn back on our Khmer men and women who are taking risk working oversea.
Well, we did assist them to come back home when they were stranded.
koreans are the worst!
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