| Family members of a Korean man who died in Indonesia have demanded a thorough investigation. gettyimagesbank |
By Jung Min-ho
It was a mysterious death.
A Korean man, 54, surnamed Oh, a veteran employee of Korea East-West Power (EWP), a subsidiary of the Korea Electronic Power Corp., was found dead on Jan. 21 at his home in the southern region of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo.
When police arrived, a wire was wrapped around his neck, his body was covered with stab wounds and bruises, and there were blood-stained footprints.
So it was no wonder his family was dumbfounded when police concluded that there were no signs of anyone having broken in and the man died of suffocation ― without telling them what caused him to choke in the first place.
Now his wife and two daughters fear they will never know how he died.
"All of his family members are concerned whether local police are properly investigating the case," Oh's niece said in a petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website, which has garnered more than 9,500 signatures.
"Meanwhile, officials at the Korean Embassy in Jakarta told us there was nothing they could do to help us. They keep saying all they can do is to inform us of what local police find."
Oh was sent there for the construction of a power plant, a project funded by a joint venture between EWP and a local company.
According to the niece, Oh called his family every day. But he suddenly stopped calling after Jan. 18. Three days later, he was found dead in the bathroom.
She accuses EWP of not telling the family the truth about his death.
"At first the company said that he appeared to have died after slipping on the bathroom floor … After local media reported about his death, the company said he was possibly murdered," she said.
"I feel that the company has not made enough effort to find the truth behind his death."
After the issue came to the fore, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked Indonesian authorities to conduct a joint investigation, only to be rejected.
But the authorities later approved Korean experts "helping" with the investigation. According to the ministry, Korean police and forensic experts are now working with Indonesian police after arriving there on Feb. 17.