Tag: Judicature oppression

Non-violence in times of war: Protest and resilience in Jeju, South Korea

Re-blog from the Intrepid Report

Photo by Cho Sung-Bong/ People take meals during protest in front of construction gates. For more photos of protest by Cho Sung-Bong, see here.

Non-violence in times of war: Protest and resilience in Jeju, South Korea

by Carole Reckinger

April 16, 2013

In the midst of warmongering and a worsening of tensions between North and South Korea, a group of peace activists is continuing its non-violent struggle against the construction of a naval base on the island of Jeju, South Korea.

Tensions between North and South Korea are not new and the importance of building the base have been repeatedly put forward by the South Korean government as playing an important role in coastal defense. It claims the naval base must be completed and put into service as soon as possible in order to react quickly to any further military provocations by North Korea.

Since 2007, the small fishing village of Gangjeong has led a non-violent resistance against the construction of a naval base right next to a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Despite 94% of the villagers having opposed the base in a referendum, the government has not respected the wish of the people concerned and seems to be buckling under the pressure of corporate conglomerates and the weight of the United States’ wish for an increased presence in the Pacific.

In November last year, I spent a month in Gangjeong village. Day after day, I observed the disproportionate police reaction to the non-violent blockade of the entrance to the construction site and. The most striking feature of the protest was the protesters’ resilience. Young and old and from a multitude of social backgrounds, despite their bruised bodies, the odds stacked against them and the risk of high fines or imprisonment, they kept returning to the front of the gate to fight for what they believe is right. But since tensions have been rising with the North, police crackdown has become more severe and more protesters have been arrested.

‘Professional troublemakers’

From the time the construction of the base was announced, activists, Catholic priests and nuns, Protestant pastors, law professors, teachers, artists, writers, families and students from all around South Korea have joined the villagers’ protest. In order to hinder and delay construction, protesters file lawsuits and press for a reconsideration of the project nationwide, but also regularly block the entrance to the construction site with their bodies, chain themselves to anything available and go on hunger strikes. The fight against the naval base currently mobilizes more than 125 non-governmental organizations across South Korea and more than a hundred abroad [1].

The reasons for which activists from across South Korea and abroad oppose the base are manifold. They include calls for environmental protection, social justice, demilitarization and non-violence. Support for the anti-base movement at the national level is limited, one reason being that the mainstream media has not picked up the topic. When it has, it has portrayed the activists as troublemakers and has tried to discredit them. In times of heightened tensions with the North, calls for demilitarzation, peaceful resolution of conflict and the protest against military bases are heavily criticized, and the Gangjeong protesters are insulted as undermining the security of the state and being pro-North Korean agitators.

The protest demographics, however, invalidate accusations of professional trouble-making as the movement is composed of housewives, taxi drivers, teachers, farmers and students, from all ages and social backgrounds. Many activists in Gangjeong, are members of pro-disarmament and peace groups/networks, and clearly oppose a militarization of the ‘Peace island.’ When Jeju last hosted a military base in 1948, 30,000 people were killed, 40,000 houses burnt down and 90,000 people made homeless (with a population of 300,000 at the time), as the government sought to quell an uprising led by a small group of alleged communist insurgents.

Only in 2003 did the South Korean government apologize. President Roh Moo-Hyun called the massacre, which became known as the April 3rd incident, a “violation of human rights by the state.” He declared Jeju the “Island of World Peace.” But the official peace rhetoric was short lived. Only four years later, the same President finalized plans for the naval base on Jeju. “We do not understand why South Korea, with more than 100 military installations, still needs another military base,” says the mayor of Gangjeong. “We are not convinced by the argument that this naval base will enhance the security of our country” [2].

The ROK Navy already operates seven naval bases in South Korea and the Republic of Korea Armed Forces is the sixth largest army in the world. [3] Since the end of the Korean War, South Korea has a joint military partnership with the United States through the US-ROK Mutual Defense Treaty. South Korea relies on its security partnership with the United States to protect itself from external threats, most notably North Korea.

A new tactic of discouragement

In the midst of the growing tension between North and South, demilitarisation and peace messages will not be given much space in the national discourse and the mainstream media. The risk is high that security arguments will be used to crack down on the peace workers and smother the years old struggle to an end.

During the long years of dictatorship, dissent and civil disobedience would have been met with bloody repression. Today, the government is not in a position to use such deadly violence on its people and uses other tactics. Since the start of the construction, around 700 arrests have been made with 500 indictments and 22 people imprisoned. However, following the presidential election of Park Geun-hye in December 2012, fines against the protesters have been soaring. The total amount of fines for anti-base protest has reached approximately US$450,000 in addition to damage compensation fees of approximately US$280,000. Between January and mid-February 2013 alone, around 100 people went on trial and were sentenced to combined total fines of US$90,000 [4]. This seems to be the government’s newest tactic to discourage protesters from taking part in the protest. This is a much more discreet but just as effective method of repression.

It is clear that in the eyes of the government, the local community’s livelihood and the natural and human resources on which it depends come second to geo-strategic and corporate economic interests. The current North-Korean military threats will further undermine the nonviolent protest against the militarization of Jeju and the government seems prepared to use all levels of state power to go ahead with the project, from massive executive reinforcement to legal and political measures. With all the media attention focused on the war rhetoric, the fight of the Gangjeong activists is at risk of being forgotten.

Notes

1. Information retrieved from www.savejejunow.org
2. Personal interview conducted 19 November 2012 in Gangjeong, South Korea
3. Quoted in Republic of Korea Armed Forces, Wikipedia entry, Retrieved from www.wikipedia.orghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Korea_Armed_Forces
4. Gangjeong Village story (feb 2013), severe judicial oppression fought with healing hands

April 18, 2013
Villagers Vote ‘No’ to Military Residence Housing Project in Village

1. Villagers vote ‘No’ to the military residence housing project in the village

Photo by Cho Sung-Bong. Villagers vote. For more photos, click, here.

In the villagers’ general meeting that was held from 8 to 10 pm, April 10, the villagers made a decision on the two: 1. To have the Life and Peace Pilgrim throughout the Island during this summer (concrete time and details will be talked later), 2. Not to invite military residential house in the village.

Regarding the 2, the matter of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the invitation of the project was decided by vote. The voting result was 114 people for ‘no,’ 3 people for ‘yes’, 1 abstention, of total 118 seated electorates. The total number of the present people in the meeting was 145. The villagers have already fiercely dissipated the navy’s presentation on the navy’s military housing project within the village three times. Those were May 29, June 15, 2012 and March 26, 2013.

At the time of 3^rd presentation when Yoon Seok-Han, navy captain and director of the construction management said that he would drive for another hearing by sending the village an official letter that the villagers claimed that it was not mailed, Kang Dong-Kyun, mayor of the Gangjeong Village Association said that the village would decide the matter on the drive for presentation through the village’s temporal general meeting.”

The Gangjeong Village Association said on April 11, after the vote result: “The vote is based on the village regulation that the numbers of the seated have to be more than two third and the resolution has to be approved by more than half. Therefore the vote this time is effective.” The village also stated that, “The general meeting on the day was a temporal general meeting with the prior process of 7 days’ public notification term, constant announcement broadcasting that encourages villagers’ participation, mailing of the correspondence that explains the agenda content. We declare that it is an official result that represents the villagers’ collective opinions.”

Image source: Jeju Sori, April 11, 2013/ The Village Association’s prior notice on the vote and village map. Among six candidate areas, the navy has decided B area as the final candidate.

The village emphasized that “we strictly warn the navy that there should not be its words and actions that it is to drive for the building of military housing in the Gangjeong village saying that Gangjeong villagers hope installation of it. The navy should be responsible for all the conflicts and social ripples following such.”

Photo by Cho Sung-Bong/ Villagers count ballots.

Regarding the atmosphere of the voting date, dir. Cho Sung-Bong delivers one villager’ remark in the general meeting on April 10: ‘A villager stood up and talk to the others,

“Since the blast of the Gureombi Rock, not to mention dust, mixed muddy water and oil are floating on the underground water. There has been no such things by now. [..]

Even though I have reported it to the Water Resource headquarter, its officer dropping by here, left only words that there is no problem for farming. I appeal you to decide your vote after thoughtful consideration.”

The navy was told that it would build the military residence in the new town of the Seogwipo city if the Gangjeong villagers do not agree on the project. It is questionable what the navy and Island government would make their next decision after the result of the villagers’ vote. It was a general meeting with the atmosphere of heavy silence and tension.’

Photo by Cho Sung-Bong. An Old woman villager in the meeting.

Photo by Cho Sung-Bong/ Young activists in the village are watching the villagers’ vote

April 10_ Opening speech by mayor Kang Dong-Kyun (Video by Pang Eun-Mi)

April 10_Villagers vote on the matter of yes or no on the invitation of military residence housing project

(Video by Pang Eun-Mi)

April 10_Villagers count ballots (video by Pang Eun-Mi)

April 10_Mayor Kang reports the result of vote and people cheer (Video by Pang Eun-Mi)

2. On April 10, the Jeju court(Judge: Kim Kyung-Sun) sentenced mayor Kang Dong-Kyun with 300,000 won fines for the charge of installing structure two years ago in the coast of the village where the naval base building is enforced

The judge applied to him with the charge of violation on Public Waters Act(the law on the reclamation and landfill on the public water and its vicinity surface). Mayor Kang was charged that he had installed artificial structure of wooden cross with an artifact of ‘red-feet crab,’ on the coast within the naval base construction area without permission of jurisdiction office in April 2011.

The structure had been set up to protest to the destruction of the habitats of the red feet crabs during the time when opposition struggles were being done centered around the Joongdeok coast (of which most part we call as the Gureombi Rock).

Judge Kim reasoned her court decision saying that she “referred to the fact that the area of wooden cross is narrow and it is not installed any more.” However, mayor Kang expressed his will for appeal saying that, “at the time, the [navy and companies] were destroying rock floor without permission to work on the public water and its vicinity surface. Further the so called witness cannot even say exactly where it was. I am no guilty.” (Source)

3. New chief of the Jeju Prosecutors’ Office

Lee Myung-Jae(53), new chief of the Jeju Prosecutors’ Office who was inaugurated on April 10 expressed his tough position on the opposition struggle against the Jeju naval base project, emphasizing so called ‘law and principal.’ He was born in Choonchungnamdo province and has worked in Choonchun, Incheon, Seoul, Chungjoo. The people have strongly denounced on the abuse of the prosecutors’ power on March 21.

Lee Myung-Jae(53), new chief of the Jeju Prosecutor’s Office (source)

April 13, 2013
A video maker who volunteered to be jailed for fines

See also Regis Tremblay’s writing

Gangjeong Village Video Documentarian Jailed

Photo by Lee Wooki/ Dungree working during the summer, 2012

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.

Image source: Choi Hye-Young/ Dungree during the Island Peace Pilgrim, Summer, 2012

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..”

Photo by Dungree on March 24, Sunday/One of his photos that he took on Sunday, March 24, just before the day of his imprisonment. See more of his photos , here.

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.

Photo by Song Dong-Hyo/ Dunguree Park Seong-su on August 24, 2011 when mayor Kang of Gangjeong village was arrested. . . Memorable day that lots of Gangjeong villagers protested to block the arrest of mayor Kang. . .Overnight protest has continued in front of Seogwipo police station (Caption by Regina Pyon)

Photo by Abigail Yu/ Dungree working in the field when mayor Kang was arrested in Aug. 24, 2011.

March 25, 2013
44% dismissal rate regarding arrest warrants! Stop judicature oppression!

Source/ Press conference in front of the Prosecutors’ Office, Seoul, simultaneously held with that of Jeju on March 21, 2013

Press conference in front of the Prosecutors’ Office, Jeju, simultaneously held with that of Seoul on March 21, 2013

It is a translation of people’s statement on March 21, 2013. You can see the original Korean script, here.

March 21 Press Statement

We denounce the prosecutors’ brutality to oppress the Gangjeong village!

: The dismissal rate of the arrest warrants regarding the incidents in the Gangjeong village is 44%

: The written arrangements and arrest warrants are manipulated with lies and distortions

In the research on the ‘Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2012‘ reported by the Transparency International (TI) on Dec. 5, 2012, the Republic of Korea (ROK: South Korea) got the 45^th among 176 nations, two steps down from a year ago. The ROK headquarter of the TI stated that “The result this time is because of the prosecutors that got the bottom in the examination on the CPI.” The prosecutors matter because they pretend that they are the guardians for capital and power not for citizens. The very example appears in their measures on the ‘opposition movement against the Jeju naval base project.’

The navy’s illegal and law-evasive behaviors during the drive process for the Jeju naval base project have been exposed through the audit on the government affairs in 2012. While opposing against an illegal project is citizens’ natural rights and duties, the prosecutors, saying ‘it is a legal project with no problem,’ in their written arrangement, quibbled to strictly punish the citizens that have opposed the Jeju naval base project while giving an indulgence to the project interspersed with illegality and law-evasiveness.

During the process against the Jeju naval base project, 38 arrest warrants have been claimed since April, 2011 to the current. Among them, 16 have been dismissed ( 44% dismissal rate while the avarage dissimisal rate of the Prosecutors’ claims in 2012 was 20.5%). It shows how the Jeju Prosecutors have unreasonably wielded their judicuture power by now. The bigger problem is that tremendous parts of even the cited arrest warrants are filled with lies

For example, in their arrest warrants on July 3, 2012 against Mr. Kim who was arrested for his crane sit-in in protest of ‘uninstalled silt-protectors,’ on June 30, 2012, they stipulated that “since double silt-protectors were completely installed, there is no possibility of floating materials in the vicinity sea. However there has been not once that double silt protectors have been installed in the Gangjeong Sea observed of the regulations in the environmental impact assessment. Moreover, on July 2, just one day before the arrest warrant against Kim, the Jeju Island governor, sending an official letter to the joint chief of naval operation, had directed him to “resume construction after carrying out restoration construction on silt protectors and then receiving the Island government inspection on it.” The fact that the prosecutors manipulated arrest warrants against Kim, ignoring navy’s such illegality but representing only the positions of the construction companies, shows the current status of the prosecutors. Such cases are not limited to one or two.

It is not only in case of arrest warrants. The ‘written arrangements’ are also filled with various lies and distorted facts. The prosecutors defined a citizen who has not done even one-man protest in the Gangjeong field as ‘a professional protester,’ only to demand an imprisonment sentence against him. They have even forcibly indicted a peace activist in Gangjeong despite the proof of a photo that it was a construction company worker who kicked and damaged the construction fence. The prosecutors ‘cancelled indictment against the peace activist’ during the trial. There has been a case that the prosecutors have claimed 10 months imprisonment against a citizen but got the court decision of ‘no guilty on him/her. Not to mention it, a trial of a citizen who was charged for the violence against police ended because of the police violence shown in the screen submitted by the police themselves. The citizen filed later a written accusation against the police. To oppress religious events, the prosecutors over-issued mass indictments against the people who were sitting for the Catholic mass and prayer meetings in front of the gates. They have even demanded a sentence that is not stipulated in the ROK criminal law.

The fact that is especially a problem is that such cold application of law is boundlessly benevolent on the violence by the police and construction companies. The representing examples are: The disposal on non-indictment of a cement mixer truck driver who wielded violence against a woman; a connivance on a police director of criminal investigation who took violence against Yang Yoon-Mo [on April 6, 2011]; a connivance on the navy who took violence against Dr. Song Kang-Ho [in June, 2011]. Because of that, the victims of four times police violence that resulted in their bones being broken have not even filed written accusations against the police. It is because it is obvious that it would result in wasting of paper to file to the Jeju Police and Prosecutor’s office with written accusations, regarding the police violence .

The prosecutors dispose with ‘no guilty’ for the violence by construction company thugs and police even though there are proofs; indict citizens who protest to such violence by construction company thugs and police, only with the police testimony; but demand an imprisonment sentence against the citizens. Such behaviors of the prosecutors show the typical type of judicature violence.

Tens of Asian Human Rights organizations who have visited Gangjeong in 2012 and UN Human Rights rapporteurs have expressed serious concern about the ‘state violence and human rights violations’ that occur in the Gangjeong village. The Jeju prosecutors should not forget that the subject that has brought in the international society’s concern is nothing but themselves.

The prosecutors, abusing their judicature power, have afflicted the Gangjeong villagers and citizens who oppose the naval base project. Even though it is natural that they immediately release the citizens who took just resistance act or protested against police violence but whom the police arrested, the prosecutors used to release them fulfilling the legal limit of 48 hours or used to indict them based only on the police’s lie testimonies or slipshod interrogatory documents without concrete proofs and then used to over-issue unreasonable prosecutions and arrest warrants against them.

While it is the responsibility of the judicature power to measure justice by collecting the claims by the anti-base side with even minimum principle of equity, the Jeju Prosecutors have not only condemned the accused with their subjective hostility and over-issued sexual discriminatory remarks, but also have prosecuted hundreds of imprisonment sentences based on partial value judgement that the citizens ‘should be strictly punished because they oppose the national project.” Further, considering that the case of actual prison sentence is only one (actual prison sentence rate is less than 1%) and there are many cases of no guilty sentence, it is clear how unreasonably the prosecutors have over-issued their judicature powers.

Therefore we strictly warn to:

: Prosecutor Park who has filled written arrangements by manipulating facts to represent the state power and capitalist position and who has directed the judicature violence against innocent citizens to drive them as if they are devils;

(Prosecutor Park was recently promoted to a position of prosecutor in the 2^nd criminal department of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ office. He is the responsible subject in most cases mentioned above)

: The Jeju Prosecutors’ Office that Prosecutor Park has been belonging to

: And the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, ROK, that defined the Gangjeong villagers’ struggle as the ‘public security situation.’

Stop all the oppression of unreasonable wielding of judicature power against the citizens, by asserting that there should be no opposition to the Jeju naval base project interspersed with illegality and law-evasiveness! If such judicature oppression is to be continued, the prosecutors will face more tremendous citizens’ resistance than the current.

The press statement that we have read is of tremendous fines, imprisonments, arrests and cries of blood in every line. Now when the voice for the reform of judicature is higher than ever, we demand that the prosecutors take responsibility for their positions with vocation even it is minimum

March 21, 2013

The Gangjeong Village Association

Jeju Pan-Island Committee for the Stop of Military Base and for Realization of Peace Island

Peace activists in Gangjeong

Image source: Rev. Jeong Yeon-Gil/ “Where is the judicature justice?/ The prosecutors do “by law” to the powerless citizens, but “by bribe” to the riches, and the police do “Like dog” to puppet government!

Exposure on the reality of the ROK prosecutors’ oppression in Gangjeong

(Video by Dungree on March 22, 2013 )

March 24, 2013