Jeju Island, South Korea– For the past two weeks, I’ve been in the Republic of Korea (ROK), as a guest ofpeace activists living in Gangjeong Villageon ROK’s Jeju Island. Gangjeong is one of the ROK’s smallest villages, yet activists here, in their struggle against the construction of a massive naval base, have inspired people around the world.
Since 2007, activists have risked arrests, imprisonment, heavy fines and wildly excessive use of police force to resist the desecration caused as mega-corporations like Samsung and Daelim build a base to accommodate U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines for their missions throughout Asia. The base fits the regional needs of the U.S. for a maritime military outpost that would enable it to continue developing its Asia Pivot strategy, gradually building towards and in the process provoking superpower conflict with China.
“We don’t need this base,” says Bishop Kang, a Catholic prelate who vigorously supports the opposition. He worries that if the base is completed, Jeju Island will become a focal point for Far Eastern military struggle, and that this would occur amid accelerating military tensions. “The strongest group in the whole world, the military, takes advantage of National Security ideology,” he continues. “Many people make money. Many governments are controlled by this militarism. The military generals, in their minds, may think they are doing this to protect their country, but in fact they’re controlled by the corporations.”
Jeju Islanders cannot ignore or forget that at least 30,000 of their grandparents and great grandparents were slaughtered by a U.S.-supported Korean government intent on crushing a tenacious democracy movement. The height of the assault in 1948 is referred to as the April 3 massacre, although the persecution and murderous suppression lasted many years. The national government now asking sacrifices of them has rarely been their friend.
But for the construction, Gangjeong seems a truly idyllic place to live. Lanes curving through the village are bordered by gardens and attractive small homes. Villagers prize hard work and honesty, in a town with apparently no need to lock up anything, where well-cultivated orange trees fill the eye with beauty and the air with inexpressible fragrance. Peaks rise in the distance, it’s a quick walk to the shore, and residents seem eager to guide their guests to nearby spots designated as especially sacred in the local religion as indicated by the quiet beauty to be found there.
One of these sacred sites, Gureombi Rock, is a single, massive 1.2 km lava rock which was home to a fresh water coastal wetland, pure fresh water springs and hundreds of plants and animal species. Now, it can only be accessed through the memories of villagers because the Gureombi Rock is the exact site chosen for construction of the naval base. My new friend, Tilcote, explained to me, through tears, that Gureombi has captured her heart and that now her heart aches for Gureombi.
Last night we gathered to watch and discuss a film by our activist film-maker and friend Cho Sung-Bong. Activists recalled living in a tent camp on Gureombi, successful for a time in blocking the construction companies. “Gureombi was our bed, our dinner table, our stage, and our prayer site,” said Jonghwan, who now works every day as a chef at the community kitchen. “Every morning we would wake and hear the waves and the birds.”
The film, set for release later this year, is called“Gureombi, the Wind is Blowing“. Cho, who had arrived in Gangjeong for a 2011 visit at the height of vigorous blockades aimed at halting construction, decided to stay and film what he saw. We see villagers use their bodies to defend Gureombi. They lie down beneath construction vehicles, challenge barges with kayaks, organize human chains, occupy cranes, and, bearing no arms, surround heavily armed riot police. The police use extreme force, the protesters regroup and repeat. Since 2007, over 700 arrests have been made with more than 26 people imprisoned, and hundreds of thousands in fines imposed on ordinary villagers. Gangjeong village now has the highest “crime” rate in South Korea!
Opposing the real crime of the base against such odds, the people here have managed to create all the “props” for a thriving community. The community kitchen serves food free of charge, 24 hours a day. The local peace center is also open most of the day and evening, as well as the Peaceful Cafe. Books abound, for lending, many of them donated by Korean authors who admire the villagers’ determination to resist the base construction. Food, and much wisdom, are available but so much more is needed.
After seven years of struggle many of the villagers simply can’t afford to incur additional fines, neglecting farms, and languishing, as too many have done, in prison. A creative holding pattern of resistance has developed which relies on community members from abroad and throughout the ROK to block the gate every morning in the context of a lengthy Catholic liturgy.
Priests and nuns, whose right to pray and celebrate the liturgy is protected by the Korean constitution, form a line in front of the gate. They sit in plastic chairs, for morning mass followed by recitation of the rosary. Police dutifully remove the priests, nuns and other activists about ten times over the course of the liturgy, allowing trucks to go through. The action slows down the construction process and sends a symbolic, daily message of resistance.
Returning to the U.S., I’ll carry memories not only of tenacious, creative, selfless struggle but also of the earnest questions posed by young Jeju Island students who themselves now face prospects of compulsory military service. Should they experiment with conscientious objection and face the harsh punishments imposed on those who oppose militarization by refusing military service?
Their questions help me pivot towards a clearer focus on how peace activists, worldwide, can oppose the U.S. pivot toward increasing militarization in Asia, increasing conflict with its global rivals, and a spread of weapons that it is everyone’s task to hinder as best they can.
Certainly one step is to consider the strength of Gangjeong Village, and to draw seriousness of purpose from their brave commitment and from the knowledge of what is at stake for them and for their region. It’s crucial to learn about their determination to be an island of peace. As we find ways to demand constructive cooperation between societies rather than relentless bullying and competition, their struggle should become ours.
The people in Gangjeong are having an urgent and important campaign to send letters to Pope Francis, appealing him to please visit Gangjeong. Please refer to the below and send yours to Pope Francis. Please visit Pope to Jeju site here, too.
Let’s write peace letters to Pope Francis so that His Holiness can visit Gangjeong village on his trip to South Korea in August!
Yes, Pope is coming to Korea this August. The details of his trip or itinerary is not decided yet, but we think that the Vatican will soon decide detailed schedule. So it is very important for us to write and send letters to Pope Francis NOW to help Him know more about Gangjeong’s 8 years of peace movement against massive naval base for nuclear… warships, and convince Him to visit the suffering village on the island of world peace.
Just think about Pope Francis holding the Eucharist at the daily Catholic life-peace Mass at the naval base construction site. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousnads, of people will gather together, and in fact as BishopPeter Kang U-ilonce said, peace will begin to flow from this tiny village of Gangjeong to the rest of the world.
So please take a pen and write your sincere heart out at a piece of paper. Send it to the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican City. It’s easy and anyone can do it for peace of Gangjeong. Here’s a sample peace letter envelope that I had sent to Pope Francis. His Holiness will be likely to read our letters if we write from all around the world with one heart. Please circulate this message to your friends. Let’s make Pope Francis read our peace letters and meet Him at Gangjeong this summer! And leave a copy of your letter at Facebook No Naval Base group https://www.facebook.com/groups/nonavalbase/
Here’s a letter that I sent to Pope a week ago, and I am writing again and again until he replies!
Love,
Joyakgol (aka dopehead zo)
————————-
Dear Holy Father,
I am a peace activist, living in South Korea. I hope this letter finds you well. I have a big, but a simple wish for Your Holiness. And I am praying God hear me and make it come true.
When you come to South Korea this year, please visit Gangjeong village in Jeju Island. Even though Gangjeong is a small village, but peace-loving people have been resisting against the construction of a massive naval base for 8 years. The naval base construction project has been tearing apart peace of the residents here. The people used to live peacefully before the military project started. We desperately want the peace back.
As Bishop Peter Kang U-il said once, peace around the whole country begins here. We pray everyday courageously and tenaciously at the entrance of the construction site with the presence of thousands of riot cops and the threat of arrests coming from them. We have never given up the hope that one day we will be able to live peacefully without the massive naval base for nuclear warships. We will keep praying. So when you come to South Korea, please come down to Jeju and meet these incredibly beautiful people.
The Jeju Island was declared the island of world peace in 2005, and yet peace here is under severe danger. We just want to love unconditionally without arms and weapons.
‘The response I’m getting from the blog I posted this morning is enormous. I believe it started a major letter-writing campaign to Pope Francis. Even the Korean Quarterly newspaper will promote it on their FB page, and through the editor’s church. I sent out my letter to Pope Francis which is in my blog to over 300 people, and I am sure that others will forward it to their lists of friends and colleagues around the world. People are saying things like, “what a great idea,” “amazing how creative the people of Gangjeong are,” “they just don’t give up,” “I’m going to write a letter myself today,” and more.’
Peace and Solidarity,’
I continue to be amazed at the influence The Ghosts of Jeju is having around the world. Today, I received a request on behalf of the people of Gangjeong Village to send a copy of the film to Pope Francis, hoping that he will visit Gangjeong Village on his planned trip to South Korea in August.
It seems that the peace activists in Gangjeong have engaged in a letter writing campaign directly to Pope Francis inviting him to Gangjeong.Here is my letter to Pope Francis that will accompany a copy of the film. I would also encourage you to write to Pope Francis.
January 26, 2014
Your Holiness Pope Francis,
The people of Gangjeong Village on Jeju Island, South Korea await your announced visit in August with great anticipation for they have been peacefully, and non-violently protesting the construction of a large naval base to accommodate the U.S. pivot to Asia.
For seven years, these farmers and fishermen, and their peace activist supporters from around the world, have been protesting seven days a week, 365 days a year. The Bishop of Jeju, Peter Kang, has supported the protest with his frequent presence, and by allowing his priests and nuns to participate.
Your Jesuit brothers in South Korea have been at the forefront of this struggle. Several have been arrested, fined, and imprisoned. During my stay there in September of 2012, I got to know them well, and I was pleased to see the Catholic Church and the Jesuit Fathers leading the struggle for peace and justice. And, busloads of Catholic nuns from all over South Korea regularly go to Gangjeong to protest and stand in solidarity with the villagers.
Daily mass is celebrated in front of the main gate to the base. Never before have I witnessed the sense of community shared by people of all faiths and backgrounds.
The struggle in Gangjeong Village is important for the Peace Movement around the world because everything is in focus there. These people are farmers and fishermen who will lose their livelihoods and their 500 year old village. They a protesting against the military and imperial expansion of the United States; they are protesting the occupation of their country by tens of thousands of American troops; they are protesting against the violation of human rights; and they are protesting against the desecration of a pristine ecosystem, home to several UNESCO world heritage sites.
Furthermore, in 2005, Jeju was declared “The Island of World Peace” because of the horrible massacres, at the hands of the U.S. Army in 1948, where as many as 60,000 men, women and children were murdered in a scorched earth campaign to wipe out opposition to the American occupation and the separation of the country at the 38th parallel. What followed during the Korean conflict was the carpet bombing and napalming of North Korea until there were no more targets left. It was the first time that the world would see the unrestrained violence inflicted upon indigenous people fighting for freedom, self-determination, and their basic human rights.
I went to Jeju in September of 2012 to make a documentary film. I thought it would be a short story about the anti-base protest, but what I learned there inspired me to make the enclosed feature-length film, The Ghosts of Jeju, which just recently was named an official selection of the Chicago Peace on Earth Film Festival in March of this year.
The documentary has now been seen in more than a dozen countries, including Russia. It is being translated, by volunteers, into Korean, Russian, French, Japanese, and German because people who have seen it believe this story must be told.
The people of Jeju have asked me to send you a copy of the film in preparation for your visit to South Korea in hopes that you will visit Gangjeong Village to stand in solidarity with them. This film reveals the untold and hidden history of American involvement in Korea from the end of World War II to the present day. Most people in America and around the world, and most Korean people are not aware of this history, nor are they aware of the plans of the U.S. to raise tensions in Asia and to dominate by overwhelming military might.
Your Holiness, the entire world is looking to you as the most influential voice for the poor and for peace and justice around the world. A visit to Gangjeong will give hope to people everywhere who are opposing war, militarism, and the abuse of human rights.
Respectfully and with profound hope and respect for your papacy,
Gangjeong villagers and activists decorate the streets with colorful woolen squares knitted by supporters of the anti-base struggle. Traditional drummers play in the foreground.
I recently spoke with two members of Veterans for Peace, who had become involved with Korea issues in only the past few years. Each of them came to know Korea through their support for the Gangjeong villagers who have been battling, for nearly eight years straight, construction of a huge, high-tech navy base being built on their Jeju-Island coastline. Both men said that before Jeju, their work with northeast Asia was Japan-centered, and that “no one ever talked about Korea.” But through their engagement with Gangjeong, they have learned about the April 3 massacre, about the unending Korean War, about the unprecedented tonnage of bombs that the U.S. levied upon the Korean people in the early 1950s, and about modern Korean history, in general. Today, they recognize that the Korean War was certainly as consequential in U.S. history as the war in Vietnam. It now perplexes them that Korea had been effectively erased from the books.
The sad truth is, the vast majority of even the most progressive Americans know very little about Korea, let alone that the U.S. has been at war with it for the past 60 years. Many don’t even know where Korea is. This absurd knowledge void presents a challenge so daunting for those working toward unification, that nothing short of alchemy would seem to hold any promise for peace on the peninsula.
On the other hand, it appears that the tragedy unfolding at Gangjeong village might offer just the sort of alchemy that could conjure Korea into the wider consciousness. Ecumenical groups, environmental groups, artists, lawyers, social workers, peace-studies groups, student groups, indigenous-rights groups, and food-sovereignty groups have all passed through the tiny village whose fame is now of global proportion. Numerous articles on the villagers’ plight have been published in Europe, South America, the Asia-Pacific and the U.S. Last summer, I was at the San Francisco airport with Gangjeong’s charismatic Mayor Kang Dong-kyun on his first foray outside of northeast Asia, when a woman behind him in line said, “Aren’t you Mayor Kang? From Gangjeong village?” It turned out she had studied Gangjeong as part of a peace-studies program in Virginia, and recognized him from internet videos. Little Gangjeong has put Korea “on the map” and affirms that the Korean War is indeed alive and well.
Then, in fall of 2013, the City of Berkeley, California, was the first city in the world to formally declare its support of the Gangjeong villagers in the form of a resolution opposing the navy base. Shortly thereafter, in Madison, Wisconsin, the National Board of Veterans for Peace passed a similar resolution to “Stop the Second U.S. Assault on Jeju Island.” The document not only describes what is at stake if the base project is allowed to proceed, but also gives historical context, such as the 1948 genocide on Jeju and how the ever-increasing militarization of Korea violates the 1953 Armistice. It reads like an overview of modern Korean history vis a vis the United States.
One of the most poetic declarations in support of the Jeju struggle was made by a group of Afghani peace activists based in Kabul who have established a Skype relationship with their counterparts in Gangjeong. They write: “We are confident that if ordinary Chinese or North Koreans ever gave you trouble, you would have tea with them, using your imagination and citizen diplomacy to calm the troubles, non-violent paths which are far more effective and kind, and a far better use of tax-payer money (it takes no tax-payer money to drink tea!) than the multi-million premises, personnel and war equipment.”
The global draw of the Gangjeong village struggle owes much to the fact that the land, water, heritage and culture at stake have already garnered international recognition. Gangjeong’s culture and environment have earned UNESCO designations. It is one of Korea’s few remaining traditional, indigenous villages; it contains some of Korea’s best farms and richest soil, its purest water and its haenyo diver tradition; its coast was home to Korea’s only pod of dolphins and one of the world’s finest, soft-coral forests (now being dredged); and its 1,900 residents practice authentic local democracy.
True, all these elements attract an international crowd. But the most enduring appeal of the humble village sits squarely in its remarkable community spirit. The community is comprised of an eclectic mix of villagers, clergy and Seoul activists, who strategize and carry out campaign after campaign. There are cooks, videographers, and kayakers who monitor environmental violations by construction crews. There are people setting up for “Hundred Bows” every morning, or for a music concert in the evening. There are people manning the Peace Center, ready to welcome new arrivals disembarked off the public bus steps away. There are people printing up information pamphlets to disseminate at any one of the big, international conventions that regularly take place on Jeju. It is no exaggeration to say that the village is as fueled on dynamic love as it is by donation.
Most recently, there have been scores of knitters – yes, knitters! – sitting crosslegged in the Peace Center for hours at a time, lashing together enormous woolen quilts in rainbow hues, out of over a thousand knitted squares sent to them by supporters from all over Korea. December 2013 in Gangjeong saw the streets festooned with the quilts, and even the skeletal trees were given cheery, colorful “sweaters” that fit snugly over their trunks and branches. The sight of this whimsical riot of color splashed across winter’s dreary landscape, in contrast with the phalanxes of stern and smooth-faced cops who robotically pull away every protestor from blocking cement trucks, is indeed chilling — yet somehow, transcendent. Even an atheist once commented that life in Gangjeong was the closest one could come to living with God. Maybe that’s why, when visitors return to their own countries, either voluntarily or through deportation, they are compelled, almost evangelically, to “spread the word” through events, writing articles, and making films. Something special is going on in Gangjeong.
But it wasn’t always this way. Initially, the villagers were highly suspicious of outsiders, particularly those from the Korean mainland. They carried the trauma of the April 3, 1948 massacre in living memory, when the South Korean army, under U.S. orders, unleashed wholesale terror on the island and murdered at least a third of the population. Understandably, the South Korean government’s announcement that their village would be the site for a navy base only reinforced their mistrust of outsiders. In those beginning years, the Gangjeong villagers battled alone, in total obscurity. But at a certain point, with everything at stake, they had no choice but to embrace the support of mainlanders who seemed authentically sincere. One such mainlander was artist Sung-hee Choi, board member of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and the pivotal person in exposing the struggle internationally. She started a blog, No base stories of Korea, in December 2008 which first introduced Gangjeong outside of Korea in 2009. Choi moved to Gangjeong in 2010 and has been there ever since.
Today, almost eight years since the announcement of the base project, the Gangjeong coastline is unrecognizable, carpeted with enormous stacked cement forms of varying shapes and sizes that resemble a giant’s erector set. The 86 species of seaweed and over 500 species of mollusks – once food for the village – have all but perished. The sea is no longer a clear dark blue, but grayish brown. Gargantuan concrete cubes called “caissons,” 10 stories high apiece, sit on the ocean floor where biodiverse coral habitats once thrived. On land, an enormous rebar mold for manufacturing the caissons looms hideously over the horizon. The rumbling and scraping sounds of construction fill the air night and day. The base is slated to start operation in 2015.
To add insult to injury, resistance leaders are jailed for months on end, often caught in a revolving door of multiple prison sentences. Currently, three beloved individuals languish unjustly behind bars: 22-year-old Kim Eun-hye, Brother Park Do-hyun, and film critic Yang Yoon-mo, who has been incarcerated for about a year.
Depression and suicidal tendencies have skyrocketed in Gangjeong, according to the Jeju media. Women weep in the streets. Often, there are scant visitors to boost morale (and the visitors really do make a positive difference). During the winter when it’s off-season for tourists, they feel alone and helpless against the cranes, dredges and cops of the transnational defense industry’s destructive juggernaut.
Community Creativity
Someone once asked Gangjeong Mayor Kang Dong-kyun, “What keeps you going?” He said, “Knowing that this is not just for me, not just for my children, or my children’s children, or for my ancestors. It is for world peace.” But Mayor Kang left out a key component as to how the villagers have maintained their resilience for as long as they have: through dance. As silly as it may sound, a series of four wacky dances that celebrate Gangjeong has served as an indispensable catharsis ritual that ends each day. The villagers will also spontaneously break out into the Gangjeong dances when times get tough, such as what happened upon the tearful announcement at the IUCN convention that a resolution to stop base construction had been defeated. It’s how they let off steam so they can keep going.
In a certain sense, Gangjeong uses creativity as a weapon in psychic self-defense. Once the villagers mounted a film festival of anti-war videos directly in the gaze of a row of riot cops surrounding the base. It is as if, for every harsh blow, every broken bone, every dead dolphin, every prison sentence, and every fine levied upon them, they emerge with a surprising rejoinder of equal, positive force. Recently they lined the village streets with six-foot high stacks of books, 30,000 in all, creating both political art and a library al fresco — a stunning visual juxtaposition against the squadrons of police.
The Gandhi-esque villagers seem to have captured the hearts and imaginations of the world. When a former attorney with the Clinton administration came to Gangjeong, he marveled, “In the face of brutal opposition, they display only grace and persistence.” When a German IUCN bioethicist spent several days in the village, he remarked, “their joy is infectious.” When a Hollywood film director was asked what he liked best about his visit to Gangjeong, he said, “The dancing.” At the core of such astonishing creativity is – again — the community. Perhaps this is the alchemy that can heal all of Korea.
One could say that the villagers have metamorphosed Gangjeong into a premiere destination for political tourism. Gangjeong is an excellent place for foreigners starting at a zero knowledge base, to learn about Korea’s place in history and in the region. And the benefits are reciprocal; while visitors learn about Korea, they invariably take their lessons home and spread the information, which, in turn, supports the movement. Professor Rob Fletcher gave a seminar at Costa Rica’s University for Peace on the base struggle. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, one of the original drafters of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, has been in communication with villagers about staking out their identities as indigenous Tamna (which could lead to advantages through processes at the UN). British attorney Harry Jonas wrote a case history of Gangjeong as an example of how legal constructs violate what he calls “natural justice.” Such developments have given new hope to villagers who have lost all faith in their own government.
As a result of such exchanges, villagers have become extraordinarily sophisticated about other Asia-Pacific islands also under assault by militarization and the Pentagon’s “Pacific Pivot.” Solidarity has been built with Taiwan, Okinawa, Guam, Hawaii, and elsewhere. Now, when President Park Geun-hye echoes her father’s dream of turning Jeju into “Korea’s Hawaii,” a tourist mecca complete with navy base, the villagers steadfastly oppose. They do not want to see militarization kill all life in their sea, as it did in Pearl Harbor, which is now a toxic Superfund site. Like all indigenous people, they know that without their natural resources, they die — economically, culturally, spiritually.
Recently, an American pragmatist looked out at the machines bulldozing the coast and said to me, in a defeated tone, “You’re not going to stop the base.” He’s likely right. But maybe I’m not looking only for linear cause-and-effect results – like I used to. The way of life here has connected me with my own humanity and the humanity of others. Just as its residents have transformed this physically disfigured place into a village of spiritual beauty, I, too, have been transformed. And I know many others who have been similarly changed. Gangjeong is like the Chinese character that means not only “crisis,” but also “opportunity.”
Koohan Paik, who was raised in Korea during the Park Chung-Hee era, is a journalist, media educator, and Campaign Director of the Asia-Pacific program at the International Forum on Globalization. In 2011 and 2013, she helped to organize the Moana Nui conference in Honolulu, which brought together international activists, scholars, politicians and artists to consolidate Asia-Pacific discourse as it relates to geopolitics, resource depletion, human rights and global trade. She is the co-author of “The Superferry Chronicles: Hawaii’s Uprising Against Militarism, Commercialism and the Desecration of the Earth,” and has written on militarism in the Asia-Pacific for The Nation, Progressive, and other publications.
*Reblogged posts do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of Save Jeju Now
To our dear friends on Jeju Island who have involved in your noble struggle at South Korea’s Gangjeong Village,
For seven years I lived in a gorgeous agricultural village in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Province and like yourselves on Jeju Island, I woke every morning to a window scene of ‘heaven’.
No one with eyes to see such a view would believe that the hell of wars has been occupying this land.
My friends, I imagine you walking the simple yet unpolluted pathways of Gangjeong Village and, should you take a moment’s rest, being caressed and cared for by the tree shadows dappled with sunlight, the chatty play of the neighbourhood children, and the wafts of floral perfume dancing by.
I cannot believe that you, any more than the villagers I lived among in Bamiyan Province, would want to lose such a beautiful and sky-kissed aviary home to the ravages of hatred and greed.
The Afghan Peace Volunteers and I celebrate the love and dedication which has compelled so many of you to stop the construction trucks with your young and old bodies, trucks used to build the military base on your island – we thank you for demonstrating once again that the human spirit can speak to heavy, metallic machines.
Those ‘doing their jobs’ to establish the U.S./South Korea naval base have forgotten their duty to their fellow human beings. Hopefully, they are amenable to the persuasion of your love.
How else can we strengthen ourselves against what seems so massive a force, against the largest and most powerful military in history, except by love?
My 74 year old mother advises, “Don’t be naive or idealistic.”
But I ask myself, “Isn’t it naive or idealistic to think that the peace of Jeju can be promoted by a U.S. /South Korea naval base?”
Naive, idealistic presumptions have to be made in order to support a naval base on Jeju Island. That the U.S. and South Korean governments are ‘good and noble’. That the people of Jeju Island are so ignorant and troublesome they need heavily armed forces to civilize them. That China and North Korea are so ‘evil’ that a base at Jeju is needed to ‘contain’ them.
How wonderful to find these presumptions being dismissed upon examination, to hear the people of Gangjeong Village say, “We don’t want a base in our heavenly home!“
We are confident that if ordinary Chinese or North Koreans ever gave you trouble, you would have tea with them, using your imagination and citizen diplomacy to calm the troubles, non-violent paths which are far more effective and kind, and a far better use of tax-payer money (it takes no tax-payer money to drink tea!) than the multi-million premises, personnel and war equipment.
Such is the priceless power of humane relationships!
In 2003, I lived in Quetta, Pakistan and did medical humanitarian work among Afghan refugees. There were many suspicious characters in alleyways using satellite phones to arrange their smuggling operations, and there were those said to be the ‘Taliban’.
One day, I was invited by a student whose brother was a Talib. Yes, presumptions did flash through my mind, about the Talib brother ‘finishing the infidel off’. The opposite was true. I was hosted to a sumptuous meal, “shlombe” which is a milk-yoghurt drink, and a warm conversation. Would this human-to-human interaction have been possible over a machine-gun, under the visor of an army helmet.
This everyday truth, reaffirmed daily by Afghan friends who have loved me through their hospitality and protection, has convinced me that if the 99% of every country would befriend the 99% of every other country, we would be well on the way to discarding all weapons, including nuclear weapons. How’s that for a Global Disarmament Treaty?
On a small but significant scale, this happens among those of the North and South Korean 99% who cross the U.S.-drawn 38th parallel to reunite with one another in tears. It has happened between ordinary Iranians and Israelis during the Love and Peace Campaign.
Love and Peace Campaign, from Israelis
Osama Bin Laden cited opposition to U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia as a main motive behind his group’s attacks on September 11th. So,another thought, for thoughts are merely dreams yet unfulfilled. If those people staying around the U.S.’ 750 overseas military bases said, peacefully, “No!” and compelled the Pentagon to close the bases, how many future tragedies might be averted?
All of these sights make it so socially essential for us to remain friends, to stand and struggle together for a while or for a lifetime, free in our minds and hearts from borders, and free from the scourge of fear. That’s why the Afghan Peace Volunteers are petitioning for 2 Million Voices.
Beyond the U.S. military’s hopes of completing Jeju’s one naval base and Afghanistan’s nine are struggles by people in Okinawa, in Diego Garcia and on and on, people we commit to befriending across borders, persisting in building those person-to-person and community-to-community relationships so necessary to saving our world from militarism, from life as machines, from fear.
Gangjeong villagers and peace keepers including the international team
The Afghan Peace Volunteers with guests, and without electricity in Kabul
Update: Dr. Song Kang-Ho was released on Nov. 29. Please see here. And Mr. Kang Bu-Eon was released on Dec. 3.
Regis Tremblay, a movie director of ‘The Ghosts of Jeju,’ thankfully made these images for the English speakers. Bruce Gagnon writes in his blog:
“These good people are right now languishing inside the jail house on Jeju Island, South Korea. And there are more on the way.
Their crime? Trying to non-violently block the construction vehicles from entering the Navy base “destruction” site in Gangjeong village. In the case of Yang Yoon-Mo he got an 18 month sentence. And many people are being given severe fines to pay.
One activist from Hawaii, who spent considerable time in Gangjeong village in solidarity with the villagers, has reported: “There is no heat for male prisoners (I do not know about the women’s section of the jail) during the frigid months of winter. The conditions are inhumane.”
We can’t ever forget these good people who are fighting for peace, the environment, and human rights. See more at the official Jeju web site Save Jeju Now.‘
# Among the five, Mr. Kang Bu-Eon is a village elder, who has spent lots of time in his childhood on the Gureombi Rock. He had taken care of his sick wife who fell down for a stroke eight years ago. He himself takes four medicines for illness.
Banner image by Haku Kim/ photo by Choi Hye-Young. The banner reads, “these are no-guilty. Immediately release all the prisoners imprisoned for their crying for the peace of Gangjeong~”
Re-blogged from here: The Irish Catholic, 2013. Irish Missionaries lead Korea military protest(Fwd by John Whipple). Though it does not necessarily reflect Save Jeju Now’s own view, the re-blogged article is helpful to glance on the degree of international solidarity opposing the Jeju naval base project. The role of Catholics worldwide, especially Irish Catholic’s, represented by Fr. Pat Cunningham, is remarkable.
Regarding the number of the Catholics in the village, Paco Booyah, a member of the Village International Team writes: ‘There are several villagers who are Catholics. But not many. Also because of the Catholics’ brave and strong actions, there are several villagers who have considering becoming catholic. There are more protestants than Catholics among the villagers though. And actually a majority of the villagers are Buddhist. Many villagers also believe traditional Jeju shamanism.’
Irish Missionaries lead Korea military protest
Religious are leading efforts to prevent a military base on Jeju island, writes Siobhan Tanner
Religious who gathered for the anniversary Mass on Jeju.
Every day at 11 o’clock outside Gangjeong village on the spectacular coastline of Jeju island, a long line of cement trucks, serving the construction site for a military naval base, grinds to a halt. For the next hour none will enter or leave the compound.
Outside the six-metre high metal fence, their way is blocked by two priests in windblown white vestments. One, on rotation from an island parish – and one, a Jesuit, sent here for this cause – are holding Mass for about 20 protesters.
When the liturgy ends, the group spreads out, holding hands. They sing protest songs before they are drowned out by the sound of starting engines. The hour is up. The trucks, flanked by hundreds of police, army and private security (up to 600-strong, reports one observer) break forcibly and easily through the human chain, arresting some and scattering others.
This is the daily show witnessed by Colomban missionary, Fr Pat Cunningham, who has become increasingly radical since coming to South Korea in 1992.
Deportation
He has been threatened with deportation for protesting a massive military naval base on the pristine Unesco-protected island of Jeju, 50 kilometres south of the Korean peninsula. More than 130,000 police and army personnel have been sent to supress the opposition since 2011. “Surveillance is so huge down there and anyone who criticises the base is ‘red-brushed’ and labelled a North-Korean sympathiser in the mainstream press,” he tells The Irish Catholic from his mission house in Seoul.
Fr Cunningham is one of hundreds of priests and nuns who have placed themselves bodily in front of machines since the protests began in 2007.
Arms race
Donal O’ Keefe, head of the Colombans in Korea says they oppose the base because it is a threat to regional and world peace. “It is fuelling the arms race in Asia where South Korea is being used as a pawn in the Pacific where the USA and China are now confronting each other.”
The base will be a catastrophe for the Gangjeong environment and the livelihoods of the population living there; warship traffic is predicted to drive nine endangered species, including the bottle-nosed dolphin, towards extinction.
Due to be finished by primary contractors Samsung in 2014, the base will be contracted by the US to house 7,000 marines and 20 warships, including aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and destroyers armed with ballistic missiles which will patrol the East China Sea.
Koohan Paik, campaign director of a forum on Globalisation’s Asia-Pacific programme says Jeju is just one island in a growing constellation of geostrategic points that are being militarised as part of President Obama’s ‘Pacific Pivot’, a major initiative announced late in 2011 to counter a rising China. According to separate statements by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, 60% of US military resources are swiftly shifting from Europe and the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific region. (The United States already has 219 bases on foreign soil in the Asia-Pacific; by comparison, China has none.)
And though there are no Catholics among the 1,500 fishermen and farmers of Gangjeong village, the Church in Jeju has been at the forefront of struggle from the start.
Hunger strike
When the governor of Jeju (since ousted) agreed to accept the naval base on the island province in 2007, local priests went on a hunger strike and their bishop, Peter Kang U-il, wrote an open letter to South Korea’s president urging a referendum on the plan.
The Jesuits too waded into the battle early, sending priests from the mainland – four of whom were imprisoned for sentences ranging from one month to three.
Then, two years ago, the Church in Korea made a bold political move when clergy nationwide announced that they would engage in civil disobedience to halt construction of the site. More than 15 dioceses and several religious and justice organisations committed to fighting the naval base. After this, arrests of religious increased exponentially.
At the height of activity early last year – during the blasting and paving of Gureombi Rock, a one-kilometre basalt formation – 20 nuns and a priests, praying for peace outside the gate were arrested, while 13 Catholic priests went on trial for holding a Mass and sit-in protest.
Minor victories
The battle for Jeju has become a litany of minor victories and major defeats. When parliament halted funding for the project, in December of last year, pending an independent review, contractors Samsung continued construction using their own funds.
Law suits filed by villagers against the government have been dismissed by an allegedly hostile judiciary and environmental monitors report that once-pristine water sources have been contaminated while dredging has started to kill the underwater coral.
Meanwhile, the penal crackdown on activists has increased.
Three months ago, Brother Park Do-Hyun and Dr Sang Kang-Ho, members of Save Our Seas, were arrested while monitoring the dredging of the sea-bed which was being done without environmental protection measures.
Both men have passed 100 days in custody, awaiting sentence. Despite, these setbacks, the Catholic-led protests show no signs of diminishing.
At their two-year anniversary Mass in early October, hundreds of religious pledged to continue their non-violent actions in Gangjeong and again called for a stop to the construction.
“In our heart of hearts, maybe we know that we cannot stop it but we continue campaigning to raise awareness, to show the world what is happening,” says Fr Cunningham.
And to this end, the Save Jeju campaign has been successful. Despite a virtual blackout in the Korean and US media, activists have raised the profile of their struggle to the international stage, most recently adding the name Hollywood director Oliver Stone to a growing list of celebrities and famous commentators who have visited Gangjeong.
The Jeju campaign for Peace arrived in Ireland this month for the first time when Mayor Kang of Gangjeong – who himself was imprisoned for three months – spoke at the Frontline Defenders conference in Dublin.
– See more at: http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/irish-missionaries-lead-korea-military-protest#sthash.Osd7LLh3.dpuf
(‘This is from an email written by Br. Gilberto Perez, a Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist monk from Bainbridge Island, Washington, who accompanied Fr. Bix Bichsel to Jeju in September of this year. More writings from Bix and Gilberto in the attached link.’ By Leonard Eiger on Oct. 25, 2013)
Bix and Gilberto on Jeju Island!
Dear Friends,
In March 2012, at our yearly gathering of the Pacific Life Community, Dennis Apel of the Guadalupe Catholic Worker first introduced to PLC that US naval ships/subs were soon to be stationed on Jeju Island.
True to form of all actions and involvements the US is into and doesn’t want the American people to know about, don’t look for too much information about JeJu in the US press. These next two web sites can provide a lot of information most folks have no clue about.
Bix has been very focused on wanting to respond to the call of the religious and lay community on Jeju. Daily vigils and resistance actions have been in place for quite some time with the hope that one day the construction will end and this very dangerous American Funded Naval base 300 miles from mainland China will cease to be.
On September 23rd Bix, and Gilberto Perez flew from Seattle to Seoul Korea. They spent one day in Seoul and then directly onto Jeju. They have joined in with the resistance community on Jeju and the following reports give a lively report of his and Gilberto’s activities.
They are due back here in Seattle on the 8th of October. In the meantime the following are some thoughts from Bix and Gilberto.
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Van-den-berg vigil September 26, 2013 From Bix
You would see and feel the holiness of this island; after returning from the regular daily practice of 100 bows (stand-kneel-deep bow) in front of a main gate of the construction site–with a view of the great sea beyond the site. The woman who started this deep bowing practice two years ago was there and today she was assisted by Gilberto and I, two Korean Notre Dame Sisters, a young woman from the US and two Korean women from Jeju. One of the ND Sisters said to me, “Your country has done this to us”!
Very much wish Steve Kelly and Louie Vitale would have been able to make this trip. Their life experience, and ability to absorb and appreciate another culture would be solidarity plus. We have been greatly welcomed by all Jesuits and well provided for and well scheduled.Fr. Kim,S.J. lives on Jeju Island in a small house rented by the Jesuit Order. He lives in community with two other Jesuits; one, Brother Pamk, is in jail for resistance to the naval base; the other, Fr. Lee is presently on trial for resistance activities. Fr. Kim has been jailed on different occasions for resistance. Jeju resistance and village -building is his assigned apostolate.
We began this day with Eucharist being celebrated at the gate leading into the construction site. We were four priests, five nuns, and four village women. The village men sat in chairs in front other main gate.
The police showed up in droves (high employment). When the time came for the construction trucks to enter the building site, the police surrounded us, asked us to leave, then carried all of us in our chairs to the sideline. Best chair- sedan ride ever. This happened four times. No arrests. Eucharist was being prayed and sung all the while. We all received communion.
September 27, 2013
We are living in Gangjeong Village here on Jeju Island and the village life is wonderful. Daily Eucharist and rosary is ended with high spirited Korean dance and song. We then have lunch in the community meal long-home. Fr. Kim had arranged for Gilberto and me to attend the ongoing investigative trials of Brother Park, S.J. (who lives in community with Fr. Kim) and Doctor Song who were being held in jail for their resistance work against the naval base.
Signs of community solidarity are clear to see; however, there is division also with some of the islanders. After the court visit Fr. Kim drove us to the hospital to visit a village woman resister who was struck many times by a villager who disagreed with the resistance. Though most of the people of Jeju Island and South Korea don’t want the base, there are those that support it.
This division was made manifest when the coordinator of the community meal hut was brought into the emergency room with multiple facial injuries while we were at the hospital. He had made a remark to a villager opposed to the resistance and the villager struck him in the face many times. Many members of the resistance community showed up and were very vocal in their opposition to the police, who were investigating the victim rather than the perpetrator. Sometime after midnight we left the hospital with Fr. Kim who drove us to our guest house.
After the 100 bows, Eucharist and rosary, dancing and singing, and lunch in the community meal hut, we traveled to Jeju City to visit Brother Park, S.J. in jail. His spirit is strong and he is very alive and committed to his justice work.
I’m experiencing this time as a real retreat. The oneness of the Eucharist unifying all people in a live background stirs me. The signs of resistance and the dancing and singing give life and vibrancy to the Eucharist. What I’m experiencing is a church alive with a bishop calling for resistance.
September 29, 2013
Great conversations today with two Korean Jesuit Priest, each named Kim. This is the most alive and vibrant faith community I’ve ever experienced. Daily Eucharist is the foundation of the ongoing acts of resistance which also occur each day. Everyday priests, nuns and villagers sit in chairs blocking the main gate while the sung Eucharist up the road is being broadcast. After the Mass and rosary there is very vibrant Korean dance that knocks your socks off and fills you with joy. After this there is lively song. This is followed by Korean lunch—kim chi style- that is held
in the community meal house that has free and open meals every day. The atmosphere is light and alive with communication. At 7AM the day starts with a village lady who leads us in 100 deep down on your knees bows in front of the gate. Different blocking actions take place in the afternoon. Each order of nuns sends two nuns every week to vigil and resist. They stay in a guest house that is rented by the diocese. Four Jesuits are assigned to full time resistance work. The bishop is fabulous and calls villagers to resistance as well as assigning priests to work for peace.
At 4pm the bishop of Jeju will lead the Eucharist gathering in front of the main gate where Gilberto and I with other priests and nuns will block the gate. It is not yet clear to us but we are talking about an action on St.Francis day to call Pope Francis to join the opposition and resistance to the naval base at Jeju Island. However, today the regular resistance community expects hundreds to show up. Gilberto and I will be blocking all day.
More later—love Bix
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From: Gilbeto Perez September 29, 2013
Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo,
We bow hundred times in front of naval construction site with nuns and Fr. Bix. Very tough nuns, just like Sr. Junsan. Oliver Stone was here about a month ago and also prayed and bowed at local sacred location where US and Korea police massacred over 30,000 left wing peoples, mostly farmers and whole families, burned villages just like Vietnam..began 1946 ended in 1948. US called Jeju a “Red” island during this period. After freedom from Japanese, Koreans did not want another colonizer, therefore the arguments and massacre.
We all continue to pray. Yesterday and today over 75 Catholic nuns, 45 Jesuits and even the Bishop performed Sunday Mass. With over 300 local peoples and big dinner party at the village center. Reminds me of Cuba and Mexico where everyone in town is invited. Many of the nuns, priests and Bishop came from Seoul.Yes, Koreans are very passionate about peace and prayers, many studied in Berkeley, Boston and even the Philippines too. Two young Americans are here but not able to block gate, as they want to return to Korea. We sit in front of gate while Mass is said and police carry us off to let trucks and cars on/off the base and then we just return again. Police are thus far been pretty gentle. They remove us and lots of filming while this is performed, about five time each day.
Fr. Bix becomes like a young teenager when he is resisting the empire and very funny and happy with all…A baby Buddha.
Being near ocean means fresh fish and wonderful vegetables, cheese…No cows! Yes, US has taken the most beautiful location for the naval nuclear site, with approval of government (Eminent Domain) and destroyed the coral reed too.
So much to say about the Koreans, very respectful to elders and all participate in actions with joy and dancing after mass…I like the dancing in front of the gate the best.
Gassho, love to all and much peace, – Br. Gilberto
Photo by Leonard Eiger on Nov. 3/ “With Fr. Bichsel yesterday. Along with Br. Fred Mercy, we discussed and made plans to increase support here in Washington State for the people’s struggle for Jeju. Lots of good ideas! Now, to get more people here aware, educated and engaged in our common struggle.”
Fwd by Pamela K Brubaker, Professor Emerita of Religion, California Lutheran University
To see the PFPL statement, ‘In Solidarity with Gangjeong Villagers Say No to the Jeju Naval Base!’ go to HERE.
Photo by Jo Yak Gol, Oct. 27, 2013
Affirming Life Together in the Face of Belligerent Empire
We the participants of the 3rdPeoples Forum of Peace for Life gathered at the April 3rd Peace Park in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province in the Republic of Korea from 23rd to 27th of October 2013. We had a women-led solidarity mission to Jeju and to Gangjeong Village, and shared common experiences of threats to life in our respective societies and throughout the world. Inspired by our faith traditions’ shared affirmation of life, we issue this call to solidarity and action.
In Solidarity with Gangjeong Villagers and Say No! to Jeju Naval Base
We note with concern that the government of the Republic of Korea has enforced a naval base construction in Gangjeong village, Jeju Island since 2007, without proper consultation with villagers and consideration of villagers’ right to environment, land and peace. We are distressed to witness how a large-scale development profiting big corporations can destroy peace in a village under the name of protecting national security. For seven years the people of Gangjeong village have resisted the base construction and suffered unjustly from abuse by authorities in response to their non-violent campaign against the construction of a naval base which will militarise the sea of East Asia. We witnessed the strong resistance of the historic tradition of Jeju women lived out in the Gangjeong village struggle against the base construction. They have been accompanied by activist groups from around the world. The Catholic Church, in particular, has been a presence for the last two years, offering mass every day to draw attention to this travesty.
We, the participants of the 3rd People’s Forum, stand in solidarity with the people of Gangjeong village in their peaceful struggle against maritime militarisation. Jeju people have a full right to resist the repeat of the last century’s tragedy, the April 3rd massacre in 1948 of tens of thousands of Jeju islanders. The people of Gangjeong village present a strong call to open a new era of peace and cooperation in East Asia for themselves and for all of us.
The Not-so-Innocent Language of Empire: Toward a Counter-Narrative
The emerging US national security state is a symptom of an increasingly desperate empire seeking to maintain its hegemony, harming the living conditions of many of its own and other peoples while repressing dissent at home and in politically “hot” regions. The imperial system wages war on the people of the world. It is defined by the nexus of the national security state and predatory corporate capitalism.
Beginning with the end of the Second World War, the US led imperial model has been imposed in several parts of the world, in Central and Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Key instruments of the imperial system are militarization and coups, capture of international financial and trade institutions, neoliberal market economy, and socio-cultural controls of media, communication, and education.
The Empire employs deceptive language and consciousness to legitimize its ambitions. In the solidarity mission to Jeju, we noted the ruthlessness of the innocent-sounding “US pivot to Asia.” Instead of increasing friendly relations with Asia, it involves the new geo-political imperatives of Empire regarding China and the American presence in this economically dynamic region.
Nuclear weapons and nuclear power are two dimensions of one reality, which the nuclear military industrial complex promotes and benefits from. There is no peaceful use of nuclear power (“Atoms for Peace”), as the disaster at Fukushima shows. Forced evacuation of 150,000 people continues, highly radioactive contaminated water has not been brought under control, and efforts to restart nuclear power plants are underway, as well as export of such plants.
The Empire claims to “fight terror”, “protect national security,” and “advance democracy and human and women’s rights.” These discourses of “Western” values advance imperial dominance. Activism for justice and peace is branded as “terrorism”, and Muslims resisting colonization and wars in their lands are termed terrorists. The imperial promotion of human and women’s rights has the opposite effect of what is proclaimed.
We need to expose the moral and political-intellectual bankruptcy of these imperial claims, and advance a counter-understanding of the threats to the lives of both the human- and non-human living world, as well as the life of the planet. We must offer alternative approaches in order to live justly, sustainably, and peacefully in this world.
Toward an Interfaith Praxis of Resistance to Empire
We are at a time when a global, powerful, and meaningful phenomenon like religion can no longer ignore the multiple crises surrounding it and catastrophically affecting its adherents. In particular, the “war on terror” has harmed Muslim-Christian relations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. One of the most effective legitimating factors for the violence of the powerful in the world today is religion in general, and especially some powerful institutional actors located within the various religious traditions.
This trend needs to change and there are increasing voices which are calling on their religious leaders and communities to rekindle the real liberating spirit and ethos of their religious traditions. This is a time when all of the great, lively religious and spiritual traditions that provide fundamental values of justice, sustainability, and peace are under pressure to be co-opted by the powerful to support ongoing injustice and inequality in the world.
We meet here to affirm that these traditions must have no tolerance for the widespread, unfolding genocide taking place against the world’s peoples, and the concomitant ecocide of our home, planet Earth. The peoples of the world are suffering layer upon layer of injustice and brutality, and our religious and spiritual communities can no longer maintain their silence or just pay lip service to justice and peace. These communities must continue their prophetic and authentic missions of forcefully challenging the empire and its powerful allies, institutions, and policies and practices – in cooperation with like-minded social movements and peoples movements. We call upon our religious and spiritual communities to commit their leadership, constituencies, and resources to mobilize against these trends of domination, subordination, and destruction of peace-loving peoples, societies, and our ecosphere.
Our Common Call
We continue to be inspired by the heroic resistance waged by social movements in Latin America, the Philippines, India and many other places against neoliberalism and US hegemony, and call for meaningful support for and solidarity with these progressive forces.
Inspired by the long history of ecumenical witness for improved North-South Korean relations, particularly between the two Christian communities, we offer our solidarity to a reinvigorated process of dialogue and exchange with a view to generating a political environment conducive for reunification, beginning withrenewed engagement between the two sides to turn the Armistice into a peace treaty.
We urge resistance to financial instruments and trade agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which undermine our commitment to place people and the environment before profit.
We strongly condemn the corporate violence leashed out in Odisha, India, on the struggling communities and the environment by the POSCO company hand-in-glove with the Indian government. We demand the immediate release of people who are arrested and accused on fabricated cases. We demand the withdrawal of POSCO so that the communities can live in peace with nature. We ask the people of Gangjeong village in Jeju and other citizens of Republic of Korea to be in solidarity with the people in Odisha, India.
We call on people of faith and conscience to continue their support of the Arab people’s resistance against tyranny and occupation, and to oppose the regional and global counter-revolutionary political actors denying their aspirations for human dignity and social justice. We especially reaffirm the need for steadfast support for Palestinian national liberation and maintain our commitment to our Palestine solidarity work.
We call on the faith communities to actively combat the rising tide of Islamophobia, which facilitates greater imperial violence against Muslims.
We strongly denounce the growing network of the U.S. military power both through building bases and expanding access through Visiting Forces and Status of Forces Agreements throughout the world, including here in the Republic of Korea, and the accompanying patriarchal and sexual violence, exploitation, and suffering inflicted on women. We are inspired by and give our unconditional solidarity to the heroic resistance waged by women against such barbarism.
We deplore the state and private financing of bloated military budgets and the arms trade, and call for significant reduction in military expenditures and an end to the arms trade, so that these funds may be invested in life affirming programs.
We call on religious communities and peoples committed to peace to condemn the introduction and use of drone warfare, and demand an end to their use.
We affirm movements against nuclear power plants in Japan, India, and many other countries, and support their efforts to hold accountable governments and corporations for harm they have caused.
We call on the peoples of the nuclear armed states and those states protected by them to join with the 124 nations resolving to never use nuclear weapons.
We strongly encourage equitable negotiations between the US and Iran with a view to additional subsequent agreement on the imperative of establishing a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in the Middle East. We affirm that establishing similar zones in South Asia and Northeast Asia is also urgent.
We remain committed to our critique of global injustices and global hegemony, although this in itself does not offer an alternative to the prevailing world order. Alternative structures, institutions, laws and policies must be premised upon an all-embracing alternative consciousness which privileges attitudes and values that the Empire has hitherto ignored or downplayed. Love, for instance, should be foregrounded as a defining attribute of the individual and collective consciousness of the human family. When love begins to shape our behaviour and action in a profound manner, it will have a huge impact upon all spheres of society including economics and politics. For love has the potential to demolish ego-centric attitudes that boost the insane drive for power and wealth that often leads to hegemony.
Adopted 27 October 2013
Jeju April 3 Peace Park, Republic of Korea
An Indian activist presents on the ‘corporate violence leashed out in Odisha, India, on the struggling communities and the environment by the POSCO company hand-in-glove with the Indian government. You can see a video presented by him, here. To be co-incident, POSCO is another main company for the Jeju naval base construction. See here. For the two presented videos on people’s struggle opposing the POSCO, see here and here.
Two years ago when I visited Gangjeong village on Jeju Island, South Korea, the one-half mile ancient, solid volcanic slab of a spiritual and cultural rock known as Gureombi was still intact. The marine environment that had made Jeju Island one of the World Heritage Sites was still thriving with sea life. The government of South Korea had moved some equipment to be used for construction of a controversial naval base for Aegis missile destroyers and the US missile defense system. This would be a new military port in a country filled with US and South Korean military installations, but one that would be just a little bit closer to China–a new naval base that would symbolize the US pivot toward Asia and the Pacific.
Plane loads of protesters from the mainland of South Korea were flying to Jeju to join villagers to prevent the construction of the naval base. Hundreds of internationals came to add their words of solidarity and to take back the story of a tiny village challenging the might of the governments of the United States and South Korea in their quest for greater militarization of both societies.
Two years ago, trucks carrying materials for the new naval base to be built on the rocks were delayed or stopped by protesters. NO BASE supporters climbed on top of high cranes and chained themselves to heavy pieces of equipment to stop construction of the base.
I returned this week to Jeju Island in solidarity with the people of the village of Gangjeong who did not want their home turned into a military encampment that would destroy their way of life. Yet, despite seven years of opposition and struggle, the naval base and its harbor have been substantially constructed. Hundreds of thousands of tons of stone have been dumped on corals to make the breakwaters for the harbor. Thousands of massive concrete structures are on the shore. Two giant structures have been erected in the water that produce cassions for the massive breakwater that might protect the military harbor from typhoons. The beautiful rocks of Gureombi have been broken apart and the area filled with concrete. It is an environmental disaster.
This week, the edge of a typhoon hit Jeju Island. Many here in the village of Gangjeong were praying for a strong storm that would severely damage the naval base as happened last year that caused over $35 million in damage to the project. Perhaps Mother Nature would intervene to stop the construction when humans were unable to do so.
Many activists who opposed the base have gone to jail in the past two years. 5 are currently in jail. Earlier this week, two more were sentenced to lengthy terms in prison- a young 22 year old woman received a sentence of 8 months and a 72 year old was sentenced to 6 months. A filmmaker has been in prison for 253 days and two others for 103 days each. A trial for two more is scheduled for this week. The South Korean government crackdown on protest of the naval base has been strong.
Yet every day, a group of activists continue their challenges to the base–some challenges are spiritual and others are physical. On the spiritual side, at 7amthey gather outside the gate of the base and do 100 deep bows, each with a phrase set to music to remind participants of the importance of their mission. At11am, Catholic priests, nuns and lay persons lead a Mass at the gates. Masses have been conducted thee each day for over 740 days.
Following the Mass, for the next hour the group blockades the main gate of the naval base stopping trucks filled with concrete and other materials from entering the base and preventing empty trucks from leaving the base. The activists believe a disruption of an hour’s work in the building of the base is useful and important.
Special events are marked with larger mobilizations. In August, 2013, many walked for six days around Jeju Island and one thousand people participated in the Grand March for Life and Peace and the Human Chain to encircle the base. Noted film maker Oliver Stone joined in the march. When asked about his opposition to the base Stone said, “This base will host US Aegis missile destroyers, aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines. It’s part of Obama’s Pacific pivot…put in place to threaten China…We have to stop this. All this is leading up to a war, and I’ve seen war in Asia. I do not want another war.”[1]
Tension in Gangjeong village is high. Families have split on support or opposition to the base. Those in the village and in the provincial government who were paid off by the South Korean Navy not to oppose the base, as two other communities on Jeju Island had done, are in disfavor with many in the village. Having been defeated twice, the Navy decided to have a major campaign to influence the decision makers in the province and Gangjeong village. Decision makers succumbed to the temptations of fully paid trips to Hawaii, Australia and Singapore and other special benefits. Farmers in the village were pressured into selling their lands with the threat that if they didn’t accept the price offered by the Navy, the lands would be taken anyway and much lower compensation given in that case.
The lessons of Jeju Island are stark. The US military pivot to Asia and the Pacific will be disastrous for many areas—bases in Okinawa where the US wants to build a runway into the South China Sea over pristine corals, home to the dugong manatee; in Pagan, an island in the Northern Marianas where the US wants to use as a bombing range as it did for decades on the Hawaiian island of Kahoolawe and the Puerto Rican Island of Viequez; and in Guam where the Marines want to have an artillery range in an environmentally protected area.
With the pivot, the United States has increased its military exercises in the area. Current American military exercises with South Korea and Japan have triggered the North Korean government to put its military on alert and warned that these exercises could have “disastrous consequences.”
China is upset about US-Philippines military exercises in the South China Sea.
The Japanese people are angry that the US is urging the government of Japan to renounce the “No War” article of their constitution so the US will have another financial ally in wars of choice.
So far, just as the US pivot to the Middle East twelve years ago destabilized the region, the US pivot to Asia seems to already be having the same dangerous effect.
About the Author: Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She was a US diplomat for 16 years and served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq.
From Oct. 8 to 17, 2013, Gangjeong village mayor has joined the Human Rights defenders’ forum in Dublin, Ireland, as well as traveled London, Leeds and Paris etc. Thanks so much to the organizers of his speech trip in Ireland, UK, and France.
I am Dong-Kyun Kang, the Mayor of a small village called Gangjeong in Jeju. I am so grateful for this opportunity to speak to you. It’s very meaningful. So far, I’ve heard many stories from around the world which make me very scared and worried for our descendants.
Given that fresh spring water is such a precious and scarce resource on Jeju island, the 450 year old village of Gangjeong situated in the southern part of the island was always the envy of other villages as its possession of an abundant spring water supply which always flowed freely ensured it was always ranked first among Jeju’s villages. During the construction of the naval base, many international activists have visited Gangjeong and others in the process have been denied entry and deported. Other peace activists have been prevented from leaving the country. I’m keenly aware and saddened that many have suffered from many forms of repression and for their sacrifice I feel so grateful and promise to stand with you in solidarity.
You’ve now seen that in recent history there have been two major events in Korea – in 1948 and 1950. As you are aware there was the major upheaval of the 1950 Korean War which broke out in June 25 – a tumultuous national tragedy. One could be forgiven for thinking that this was a family feud that led to the country being divided but the reality was that the war was the result of an ideological battle between the major powers at the time and Korea was its victim. This continues until the present time.
The April 3, 1948 Jeju uprising led to the brutal suppression of the population by state security forces which resulted in the massacre of the islanders of Jeju and behind the slaughter was the US government, the self-proclaimed keeper of the peace! A conservative estimate puts the number who died from the mass killings at over 30,000 out of a population of 280,000 people at that time.
Fortunately, in 2005 President Roh apologized on behalf of the state to the people of Jeju and acknowledged for the very first time the states brutal suppression and massacre of the people of Jeju. He went on to declare Jeju as an ‘island of world peace’. Peace can only be sustained through peaceful means. Peace obtained through force and violent means is not sustainable and in time will be forced to surrender to a larger force or power. However, I believe that dialogue and mutual understanding between people who work together in mutual respect to build a sustainable future is the key to a sustainable peace.
The location of Korea positioned in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and particularly the strategic location of Jeju Island is key to understanding its strategic importance to the world’s major powers. However, behind the construction of the naval base in Jeju is the US government. Will Jeju genuinely remain an island of peace or an island of military bases heightening tensions between the world’s major powers? This is a central question that needs addressing.
The naval base project is a national security project. I think one defines genuine national policy as seeking to put the interests of its citizens and their happiness and genuine well-being first and foremost. Likewise national security is not only about the state’s administration and its military but should seek to ensure genuine human security for all its citizens. Genuine national policy and national security should seek to secure the confidence and trust of all its citizens which in turn forms the true pillar and foundation for its policies. Working together hand in hand with the people should be the central tenet of its policies.
Aside from the naval base construction creating the strong possibility of a situation of crisis for Korea and Jeju into the future, the village community of Gangjeong is being destroyed with its people being evicted. With the construction of the naval base the navy claims that the national security of the state is its primary objective followed by the economic development of the region and its third objective – the navy and residents coexisting in mutual cooperation and to the benefit of all. However, the construction of the naval base rather than enhancing and bolstering national security will have the opposite effect of increasing already existing tensions between global powers in the region resulting in Jeju being caught in the crosshairs of conflict in the future. How therefore can the building of a naval base bolster regional economic development in such a tense and dangerous environment?
The state in implementing its policies should first consult the people who will likely be impacted the most and endeavour to seek the consent of its citizens through due process which is the most important consideration and an important building block of any democratic society. Even with the project underway listening courteously to and reflecting on the opinions of the other is surely important in trying to achieve real cooperation. The need for transparency in implementing state projects is paramount. However, the naval base has been enforced from the beginning without any consultation on the decision making process and devoid of any semblance of transparency leaving the Gangjeong villagers in the dark about what was going on. Those villagers opposed to the base are in the process of having their lands expropriated without any dialogue or due process of consultation. The villagers are completely perplexed and dismayed by the conflict that has arisen in their village with the naval base decision having separated families and divided parents with siblings becoming enemies and yesterday’s friends becoming today’s enemies resulting in the collapse of the community.
Fully aware of the stark implications of proceeding with plans to build the base the central government and navy planned and designed the base together with the backing of the US government. As a means of promoting the base and quashing any form of dissent, protestors have been treated with great hostility and denounced as leftists and North Korean sympathizers by the military. The brutal enforcement of the base with complete disrespect and arrogance has resulted in the military losing whatever respect it may once have had.
Together with the mobilization of the police and state power is the major issue of the lack of due legal process and the arrests of over 700 activists, charges having been filed against 400 activists with 25 cases of activists having been imprisoned to date. There has to be a fair way to resolve such conflicts but the legal system and court process has failed to provide this. With the full power of the police state brought to bear on villagers and activists alike it is undeniable that people will get hurt as they are literally being dragged away like animals battered and bruised. However the courageous and brave efforts of so many over the course of a 7 year long struggle are not in vain but are the source of a precious groundwork that is the basis for a bright future for Gangjeong and Korea alike. These continuing efforts will continue to bear fruit long into the future. The majestic natural environment of Jeju is commonly referred to as beauty inherited from the gods and is home to the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and three UNESCO World Natural Heritage sites. In 2012 The New Wonders Foundation voted Jeju Island as one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. In September 2012 the World Conservation Congress opened in Jeju where it was hoped that it would promote the international consensus of Jeju as a ‘World Environmental Capital City’. However, this ideal is being undermined by the destruction of the environment caused by the building of the naval base which is a grave threat to genuine national security.
Some concluding remarks.
The 7 year long struggle has left many exhausted and bruised after enduring much pain and suffering along the way. There have been moments of despair but the determination to struggle and defend our village and home and pass it on to future generations has been the enduring legacy and mainstay of the struggle and has been a sacred calling. A new hope springs from the end of despair. This new hope comes from people seeking their true human fulfilment as beings living in harmony with nature, living together in peace.
Instead of Jeju being designated an island of military installations we will work to ensure that it will be known as an island of peace, an island of natural beauty and conservation. Also, together with all the villagers of Gangjeong and the people of Jeju we truly desire that global citizens and true lovers of nature and world peace will have the freedom to gather in this beautiful place without the impediment of a ghastly and ugly military base which aggravates existing tensions between global powers. Therefore, what I truly wish is for everyone around the world to sing the peace song of Gangjeong and to keep it in their hearts. Ladies and Gentlemen, Please join together in solidarity and help us.
Please help us! No Naval Base! Thanks so much for your attention.
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