Save Jeju Now

No War Base on the Island of Peace

Tag: judicial oppression

  • “We will set up the type for struggle.” Two Gangjeong male peace keepers volunteered for prison refusing to pay unjust fines.

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    Photos by Dir Cho Sung-Bong. For more photos, go to here.

     

    “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.

     

  • Mr. Oh Cheol Geun, one of the resisters against unjust fines

    Quaker peace defender Oh Cheol-Geun, well known among Gangjeong supporters for his 500 days of “3 Steps-1 Bow” ritual protest around the construction site, has been released from prison. He was imprisoned voluntarily on May 26 after refusing to pay fines related to to his protests against the Jeju naval base. Friends and supporters met him outside the prison and then went together to eat and celebrate. Pictures by Park Suk-Jin

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  • Why South Korean peace activists walked into a prison on their own feet

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    “We resist peacefully to the unjust fine and arrest.” . . .To see Some wonderful photos by Wooki Lee at Seoul press conference on May 21, click here

    The below is a re-blog from War Resisters’ International 

    20 May 2014 — javier
    Yeo-ok Yang and Jungmin Choi, activists of World Without War, and Reverend Bora Im of Hyanglin Church were put into prison on May 20. They were sentenced to pay a fine of two million won each (approximately 2,000 USD) for taking a direct action to block the construction of Jeju Naval Base, which had been illegally undertaken without an agreement with local residents.
    Instead of paying the fine, they chose to be imprisoned in a workhouse. Two million won is a large amount money for an activist. But that is not the main reason of their choices. They thought it is a violation of the constitutional rights to the freedom of assembly and association to impose heavy fines on activists taking a thoroughly nonviolent way of resistance against wrongful state policies. Thus, it is an active civil disobedience that these peace activist refused to pay the fine and walked into a prison on their own feet.
    Being punished instead of obeying an unjust law, they are actively revealing the unjustness of law. They are showing that the construction of Jeju Naval Base is wrong and that it is unjust to violate the constitutional rights to the freedom of assembly of association by imposing heavy fines.
    We respect their choices to be imprisoned. But we cannot let our friends stay in the prison for too long.
    There are several ways you can help them:
    1. Fund-raising for the fine
    (1) Himneyo >> http://himneyo.com/story/story_detail.jsp?sid=1000334 You can donate a thousand won just by logging in with a Facebook account and a few clicks. The contribution comes from a number of committed donators. (Refer to the attached images for instructions.)
    (2) SocialFunch >> http://www.socialfunch.org/peacefund
    SocialFunch is a crowdfunding site for social movements. You can donate any amount of money in several payment methods. (Only available in South Korea.)
    2. Letters of support Send your letters of support to these activists.
    (1) Send an email to: peace@withoutwar.org
    (2) You can also write online messages on a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/wearenotguilty
    3. Petition Send Twitter messages to South Korean authorities:
    (1) Ministry of Justice: @happymoj (Sample message: Release all peace activists of Gangjeong. Nonviolent direct action is not a crime! #wearenotguilty)
    (2) Ministry of National Defense: @ROK_MND (Sample message: Stop the construction of Jeju Naval Base! #wearenotguilty)
    (3) Samsung C&T: @Samsungcnt (Sample message: Stop the construction of Jeju Naval Base! #wearenotguilty)
    Press conference May 20
    Press conference  in front of the  Seoul regional court on May 20. The sign reads, “We peacefully resist to unjust fines.”
    Press conference May 22
    Press conference by Gangjeong  villagers and activists in front of the Jeju regional court on May 22. The sign reads, “If you want to imprison us, imprison us!”

  • Paco Booyah, sentenced of unjust 700,000 won fines from the higher court held by prosecutors’appeal

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    “How can this happen?” Paco Booyah humorously expresses his upset and infuriated feeling after May 30 court decision.

    Paco Booyah was sentenced of unjust 700,000 won fines (approx. 700 USD) on May 30. The prosecutor has appealed to the higher court and the appeal trial was held on May 9. In the original court on Feb. 8, this year, he has been sentenced of postponement of same amount of fines.

    The judge, Choi Nam-Sik said that, “the prosecutor reasoned his appeal that the sentence on the accused (Paco Booyah) is too weak, compared to that on Koreans.’ The decision of higher court is that ‘there is no reason to seek for adequate management merely because he is a foreigner. There should be balance to be considered as the original court sentence on him is weaker, compared to the same charge on Koreans. The matter on deportation will be decided, considered of all sorts of situations by the Ministry of Justice, not by this court decision. The reason that the accused’ wife is Korean would be a condition for its consideration. However, the court cannot make difference of sentence for that reason. We dismiss the court decision of original court and sentence the accused of 700,000 won fines. If he does not pay for fines, he should take prison labor of 50,000 won a day. The application for the Supreme Court decision should be within a week. He should submit the document to it to the Jeju local court. The document on this court decision can be mailed to the accused’ address within a week after the accused applies for it.”

    As well as in the original court that made 700,000 won sentence on Paco Booyah, there was no explanation of why it was ‘obstruction of business,’ when he sat only 8 minutes in front of the naval base project building complex during the Catholic mass. He was sitting there to avoid hot sun lights while taking photos.  There was absolutely no consideration on the illegality of naval base construction (destruction) even in violation of Environmental Impact Assessment, not to mention the navy’s thorough ignorance of democratic procedures.

    Also, while the original court considered that it happened during his NGO peace activities, there was no consideration on it in the higher court.

    Paco Booya applied for the Supreme Court decision right after the end of higher court decision.

     Stop the oppression on international peace activists!