No War Base on the Island of Peace
In this December Edition:
Weave Together, Collective peace works; The 1st Anti-THAAD Peace Bus and Lotte; Borderfree Friends of the Sea in Jeju ; Seeing Nanjing from Alddreu; M and Flags; Grandmother’s 800 Dollars; Stop SLAPPs!; Two members of Gangjeong community arrested in December; Byeopssi School Graduation etc.
In this this July and August Special Edition:
Reflections on 2015 Gangjeong March (domestic and international/ writings and photos), Gangjeong as the co-recipients of the IPB award, U.S. Ships and Fighter Jets are are here, the 23rd Global Network conference in Kyoto, Connecting Bath and Jeju, Returning to Jeju, Taiwan anti-nuclear activist’s solidarity with Gangjeong, The Ghost of Yasukuni Cancelled by Jeju City, a miracle in relation to the Sewol Ferry incident, trial updates, anti-naval base struggle shown in numbers, Peace for the Sea international Sea Camp in Okinawa, 2015 , navy’s outrageous move, Captive dolphins return to Jeju Sea, Jeju’s soft coral suffering from damage, ‘Black Eagle’ Airshow invades village, international solidarity, and more!
Here is a clear view of the table in the page 7.
I was invited to come to Jeju City today to appear on live radio show for 20 minutes at 6:00 pm. As we were preparing to leave Gangjeong village we looked into the sky as a formation of Navy Blue Angel war planes came screaming over the village. For the next 15 or so minutes they went back and forth directly over Gangjeong doing various stunts. One of the stunts brought the planes very low in an ear splitting maneuver.
The Navy was sending a message to Gangjeong village. The message was loud and clear. “We own you now. Your village will become a war base. There is nothing you can do. We will project power against China from Jeju Island. You’d better get used to the idea.” This is the way the US military empire thinks and the way they treat people who stand in their way.
Just before we went on the air for the radio interview we learned that the Navy is planning to demand that Gangjeong villagers pay $20 million (USD) in fines for disruption of construction operations on the base now nearing completion. Some activists believe that the Ministry of Defense in Seoul is actually controlled by the Samsung corporation which is the lead contractor for the Navy base construction operation. Just as in the US, where Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and General Dynamics control our government, the Park administration inside the Blue House in Seoul is actually the pawn of corporate interests.
By demanding this outrageous amount of funds from a small fishing and farming community the South Korean puppet government is saying that democracy does not actually exist anymore. In a true democratic nation people who protest oppressive government policies are not fined and driven into poverty – especially an entire village. What was the crime of Gangjeong? They wanted to protect the environment, sacred Gureombi rock, the offshore endangered soft coral forests, the water, the sea life and more. The villagers wanted to protect their way of life – their 500-year old culture.
I’ve learned that only South Korea and Japan have this kind of punishing policy that obviously smacks of fascism. The government of South Korea is controlled by corporations and Washington. How can they claim in Seoul to be a democracy and then turn around and treat citizens this way? How can the government claim they need a Navy base to defend the people and then attack the people who use non-violent protest to challenge the destruction of their village?
This will have to go to court but the courts are ultimately under the control the the same corrupt corporate state. When the Navy demands that the village must pay $20 million in fines that means every man, woman and child owes that debt. It means they would be naked without any land after the court would take all they owned. This is nothing more than an illegal and immoral attempt to finish off Gangjeong village. Every living and breathing human being on this planet should be outraged at this crime against the human rights of the people in Gangjeong village.
After the US directed April 3 massacre on Jeju Island soon after WW II was over a new program was put into place called the ‘Involvement System’. This meant that anyone who was labeled a communist by the US run puppet government could get no job and would have no future. It also meant that any family member would suffer the same fate. This demand for $20 million by the Navy is an attempt to reinstate this ‘Involvement System’ once again. The only way out for a person is to commit suicide.
I am told that the South Korean regime is using this same punitive program to go after striking auto workers on the mainland and other activists around the nation. The decision has been made to kill democracy in South Korea. We are seeing the same method of operation in Japan today as the right-wing government kills their peaceful constitution against popular will. We see the same system in Okinawa as the people demand US bases there be closed. We see the same system underway inside Ukraine where Washington has installed a puppet government.
For those out there sitting on the fence this is the time to wake up and see the writing on the wall. Democracy is being drowned globally by corporate capitalism. Who will be next?
Take Action: Call the South Korean Embassy in Washington DC and demand that they leave Gangjeong village on Jeju Island alone. Call (202) 939-5654.
“As the people who oppose the Gangjeong naval base construction(destruction), Jeju, by now, we have practiced opposition to the naval base project, living with the Gangjeong villagers. Through peaceful methods, we have resisted to the barbarity and violence of the Jeju naval base construction while looking for solidarity with the Jeju Islanders, nationwide citizens and peace-loving people in the world. [..]
Above all, [we] declaring not to pay fines- a legal punishment which is accumulated by our practice, state to face against it with our prison labor.
Second, we will not stop opposition struggle against the naval base project even after prison labor and will more heighten the degree of our struggle taking solidarity with all the people fighting against capital.
Third, for the peace of the North East Asia and Earth that is imminently being threatened, we will more gather our power into peace movement in solidarity with the peace activists in the world facing against the United States’s world domination strategy.
We go to the Jeju Prison today. They shall never fail our will to oppose the Jeju naval base project that pushes the future of the Jeju with never just but mean ways. We will resolutely resist till the day when the Jeju naval base construction is stopped.
(Excerpt from the statement by Lee Jong-Hwa, Park Seung-Ho, ‘People opposing to the naval base project, Gangjeong, go toward the Jeju Prison, July 3, 2014)
“We will set up the type for struggle.”
Today on July 3, two Gangjeong peace keepers, Lee Jong-Hwa (48, See the page 3 of here) and Park Seung-Ho (47), refusing to fines, volunteered to be present in the Jeju Prosecutor Office around 6:15 pm. They are to be imprisoned in the Jeju Prison by their will.
The two have been arrested in front of the naval base project committee building complex in June 2012. The two were charged of obstruction of business, while added by another minor charges such as insult.
Each of them is determined to be imprisoned for one or two months.
See also Regis Tremblay’s writing
Gangjeong Village Video Documentarian Jailed
Dungree (Real name: Park Sung-Soo) has stayed in the Gangjeong village since summer 2011. With his unlimited energy and dedication, he produced the videos of daily struggle in Gangjeong almost everyday. His video ‘Gangjeong Style’ made a mega hit. Not only that, he is the one who has diligently collected and listed all the daily human rights violation incidents in the field. Thanks to him, enormous examples of judicature oppression have been known to the world.
Moreover, thanks to his dedication, people nationwide and overseas could be vividly informed about the struggle and suffering of Gangjeong.
Today, on March 25, we got the surprising news from his writing that he is resolute to go to jail not only because he can’t afford fines but he is sorry to young female activists who not only suffer from daily long-time protests in front of gates but also from tremendous fines for their protests.
As of Feb. 2013, average fines against each activist are about $3,000 to $4,000 USD. Some of them are fined of $ 8,000 to $9,000 USD each. The fines against activists have become soared especially after the Presidential election on Dec. 19, 2012. It is a new strategic method of the government to oppress the movement against the Jeju naval base project. See more detail, here.
Dungree has been accused for trespass in 2012 when he entered alone the naval base project committee building complex to protest that the navy had confined, threatened, and harassed two young woman reporters with condemning sexual remarks. The two reporters appealed on the incident later to the Korean human rights committee (though eventually dismissed by the puppet committee)
You can watch the video at the time here. Dungree himself narrates with humor what happened to him on the day, including the reminders of the past crimes of the same navy personnel who have committed human rights violation on two reporters. One of those was lieutenant commander Chung who has openly put a banner of naming protesters as ‘the pro-North Korea left,’ in the village.
Recently Dungree’s appeal to the Supreme Court was dismissed and he has to pay 1,400,000 KRW (which is about $ 1,300 USD).
He was told to be volunteering to appear in the Jeju Prosecutor’s office and was eventually jailed as of 5~6 pm, today, March 25. Currently the Korean law, counts a day for 50,000 KRW(which is about $ 50 USD). It means he has to be imprisoned for 28 days.
Dungree was very resolute to say he does neither want people pay for his fines nor he was visited but receiving letters. He is willing to bear the sufferings that he would encounter in the prison for a month.
He became the first victim of the government’s new strategy to oppress people with the judicature fines. Before him, Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo had been jailed for 10 days because of his protest in 2010 (See the bottom of here) At the time the fines against him was 2,000,000 won and people released him by gathering remaining fines for him despite Yang’s own resolution to be jailed for full period.
The matter is that it would be not only Dungree but that many activists are now at the risk of being jailed because they cannot afford fines. As the judicature oppression will grow, more and more activists will suffer from those burdens of fines.
Today March 25, the Jeju media says that the Ministry of Strategic Planning allocated the budget for the naval base project. As the 70 days’ period ended on March 11 and the Island governor jointly signed with the central government on the civilian-military joint usage protocol on March 14, the acceleration of construction speed has been expected.
Tomorrow, March 26, the villagers will fight again to dissipate the navy’s presentation on military residential housing project. The villagers had an emergency general meeting on March 24. The Gangjeong Village Association concerned about saying that “Even though the naval base construction has not been completed, the navy is again raging wind with the matter of the military residence house in the Gangjeong village. The naval base would bring lots of conflicts such as radar base, helipad, powder magazine, training facilities, military airport, and more and more military residential house projects..”
Reverends, Kim Hong-Soul and Kim Hee-Young will take solidarity fasts with Yang Yoon-Mo from March 26 to 29. The peace activists will take daily one man protest in front of the Jeju Prosecutors’ Office to denounce the judicature oppression upon the jailing of Dungree.
As Dungree appealed to people in his writing, please become a member of the Gangjeong Friends that gathers members from the domestic and international to support the fines for activists, campaign for Life and Peace Gangjeong Village and movement for Demilitarizing Jeju, the Peace Island.
You may contact gangjeongintl@gmail.com.
