[Cheonji Ilbo = Reporter Kang Soo-kyung] Victims who undergo forced conversion because of their different religious affiliation sometimes seek support from the police, which is a public authority. However, the police dismiss such cases as a ‘family matter’ or ‘religious issue’. Even if victims complain of abduction and forcible confinement in chains, the police’s initial response is to dismiss this rather than verifying the facts for themselves.

A very ill feeling is brewed when one hears of a child being subject to parental abuse in today's society, yet no one bats an eyelid when an adolescent is bound in cuffs and confined. These acts are carried out on the pretext that the victim has allegedly fallen into a ‘cult’ with vested interests. Freedom of religion, as specified within the constitution, is utterly neglected. The plea by victims has continued on until today, sowing seeds of unresolved resentment. This can certainly be said for the case involving 40-year-old Garam Shin of Seongsan District, Changwon City, Gyeongnam Province.

What follows is the full text of Mr. Shin's appeal.

I am appealing to readers about the breakdown of a loving family unit, the loss of a member of society and the violation of one’s basic rights. I urge you not to read this lightly. Please do not read this lightly.

My name is Garam Shin and I am a 40-year-old Korean male living in Changwon city, Gyeongnam province. It was early morning on Monday, September 17th 2012 when I was kidnapped by two strong men in front of my parents. My mother had awoken me, telling me to get out and push my father's car. I don't know what method they used on me, but my eyes suddenly became heavy and I was knocked unconscious within a few seconds.

I don't know how much time had passed, but when I woke up, I found myself laying on the mat of a car, which was speeding on the highway, with my shoes off. As I turned round, I saw the two hired men I had seen just before I was kidnapped seated in the front seats as my parents and younger brother sat in the back. I knew at that moment that this was a kidnap, and we soon passed through the toll gate that was surrounded by mountainous terrain.

I shouted, “I’ve been kidnapped - please help!”. It was reported to the police and, instead of going to its original destination, the car stopped at the nearest local police station instead.

I went to police box A and reported an act of kidnap. I asked to call a friend, but they denied my request and was told to go to jurisdiction B police box.

And with the perpetrators who kidnapped me, I was taken in the same vehicle that I had been kidnapped in to the police station.

I would like to ask if it is police duty to send me away without protection like this. Shocked and terrified, I was alone.

Eventually, without receiving any support from police officers, I was taken to the criminal field at 'Police B'.

However, when the police investigator at 'Police B‘ checked the identities of the two men who had kidnapped me, he absolved them of any wrongdoing, and sent them away without asking me for my testimony. After listening to my parents, he asked me, "Do you go to Shincheonji Church?" "Why do you go there?” The detective, who was there to investigate the kidnap, only interrogated me about my faith. I protested and pled with him to address my plea but was told to make mends with my parents.

There is no doubt that I had become the victim of a kidnap and was very lucky to have reported it at the local police station. Can police, who are entrusted to protect citizens from crime, really be called ‘police’?

I didn't receive any help. I couldn't even make a phone call. I returned home with my parents and was imprisoned in my bedroom. I was harrassed and even told to die there.

After a failed attempt to escape, a large chain was placed around my ankle and fastened with a lock. I was then threatened to consent to undergoing the coercive conversion programme.

Only then did I know why these two men had been hired to kidnap me.

It’s called a ‘forced conversion programme’. Have you heard about it?

Did you know that this inhumane practice involves abducting and imprisoning its victim because of their belief in a different religion, and continues to be carried out unabated without the slightest concern for one’s dignity?

These pastors, who carry out forced conversion nationwide, violate human rights and carry out an indefensible programme of kidnap and confinement.

Such pastors play on the love of a parent by deceiving them into believing that their family unit will be torn to pieces unless their child renounces their beliefs and converts to a different faith. Sleeping pills and handcuffs are used to drug, kidnap and imprison one's own child, while so-called 'pastors' fill their pockets and hide behind the name 'coercive conversion programme'.

I was forced to undergo coercive conversion by this pastor simply because they deem the church I attend - Shincheonji Church - a ‘cult’, and I had my ankles bound in chains. My basic freedoms were taken away as they spewed out slander on Shincheonji Church, showing me videos and documents from unknown sources. I had to undergo coercive conversion for three consecutive days from morning to evening.

In spite of being immobile because of my chains, the conversion pastor incessantly criticised me for my attitude towards the programme. My parents' violent rhetoric and abuse worsened.

I didn’t consent to the programme, so I was set free from my chains under the excuse that I had a serious stomach ache. That’s when I escaped, was reported  by my neighbour to the police, and taken to Police Box C nearby.

I had already known that the police could not assist me, but I asked again. In the end, my basic wish was crushed on the grounds that the perpetrator was a parent. When I returned home with my parents, I was chained even more tightly and, this time, had to receive forced conversion.

If a report of abduction and forced confinement is made to the police, doesn't the police have the duty to visit on-scene to check? What is the police really for?

I don't accept that my religious freedoms can be infringed by even the parents who had given birth to me. This does not mean that one should forsake the love of a parent. But what I am urging for is stern punishment for conversion pastors who manipulate a parent's love as a means to forcibly convert one’s beliefs.

The pastor in question who had deceived my parents, kidnapped and imprisoned me, and eventually destroyed our family unit is Pastor Hwang of D Church in Sasang district, Busan city, who leads forced conversion programmes in Busan and Gyeongnam. They are criminals who evade the law by hiding behind victims' parents and run forced conversion programs which violate human and religious freedoms of a countless number of people. Please help me eradicate forced conversion from the Republic of Korea.