right to reimbursement – Save Jeju Now

bannerf — The buildings shown behind the banner are military residence inside the base

The village representatives have been doing tent sit-in in protest to the unjust navy lawsuit since April 10th despite the police threat on the first day. For more, see **here** and **here**.

April 23, 2016

Dear friends of Gangjeong Village:

This weekend, our village is honored to host the 1^st International Peace Film Festival in Gangjeong (April 23 to 26). Unfortunately, we also find ourselves in grave danger and need your urgent help. Although our peace movement has been recognized internationally as an “exemplary non-violent struggle” by organizations like the International Peace Bureau and Veterans for Peace, we are currently struggling for our very survival.

Please read the letter from Bruce Gagnon below, which describes the staggering US$2.9 million lawsuit currently threatening the village. We are appealing for the support of you and your organizations: (1) Please forward this letter, along with your own brief message of protest, to Korean embassies and consulates. (2) Then share through your networks to raise awareness and to ask for others to join in protest. You may also refer to a protest letter by the St. Columban Missionaries in Britain, here. (3) Finally please send us any short solidarity messages, images, videos which we will share with people here. (gangjeongintl@gmail.com)

We are asking that these be sent ideally during Aug 26-30^th, the launch period for this protest. Also, if you have not done so, please join No Naval Base on Jeju on Facebook for more updates and information, or visit savejejunow.org.

The reasons we chose April 26th: It symbolizes the overturning of democratic processes that the navy had used in order to create a cover story for building the base. On that day in 2007, it organized an ad hoc general meeting among a tiny fraction of the residents to make the deceptive claim that the village approved the base. In protest, the villagers responded by holding their own plebescite four months later, when 94% of more than 70% electorates of the village population voted to oppose the base project*. However, the government has never recognized the village’s legitimate democratic vote. Instead it relied upon the fraudulent “approval process” that took place on April 26, 2007: Not only was there anti-democratic voter-suppression, with no advance publicity or public discussion, there was not even a vote; instead, approval was absurdly measured by clapping. By bringing attention to the anniversary of this date, we seek to emphasize how the base has been forced upon the village through lies and repression despite overwhelming popular opposition to it. The date is also the last day of the 1^st International Peace Film Festival in Gangjeong.

For our April 26-30th protest campaign, the key message is that: (1) the lawsuit against Gangjeong is wrongful; (2) the navy’s lawsuit must be dropped (3) Also, we denounce the history of unjust measures that have been used to install the base.

We greatly appreciate your time and apologize for the very short notice.

Thank you always for your solidarity.

Sincerely,

The Gangjeong Village Association

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To: South Korean President Park Geun-Hye and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon

Dear President Park:

We have learned that your government, the South Korean Navy and Samsung Construction division are currently demanding damages from local groups and residents on Jeju Island for the alleged costs incurred due to the residents’ opposition to the Navy base construction: US $2.9 million. Your government has listed the Gangjeong village association, five groups and 116 residents and activists as the defendants.

The insistence that the construction delay was caused by residents is groundless. There are multiple complex reasons for the delay in the construction schedule. The principal reasons include disputes and controversy over the legality of the work, suspension orders issued over illegal construction work, losses and damage to structures caused by the natural environment, the strong wind and waves of Gangjeong’s coastline, Typhoon Bolaven, Typhoon Neoguri, etc. It is sophistry and exaggeration to claim that the residents blocking construction vehicles from entering and leaving the base for only a few minutes at a time caused the delay.

The responsibility lies solely with the state for threatening citizens’ right to a peaceful existence and causing their pain by enforcing this wrongful government policy. There is no one else as responsible for this as the government. The state rather than the residents bears the responsibility. Without mentioning a word about their own responsibility, it is the height of irresponsibility for the state to shift the blame for the delays in the construction onto individual citizens. The state that should be protecting the basic rights of its citizens is instead declaring war against them.

The biggest crime of all is that the ROK government and the Navy rejected the will of the Gangjeong villagers and have destroyed a 500-year old community. In addition the environmental ‘special preservation area’ is being destroyed as well – violating your own government’s environmental protection designation.

Our international membership stands with Gangjeong villagers and we demand that these outrageous and illegal charges be immediately dropped.

We eagerly await your positive response.

In peace,

Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
http://www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com (blog)

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. – Henry David Thoreau

We also thank St. Columban Missionaries in Britain for its protest letter this April. See here.

Photo by Hankyoreh/ The villagers set up the sit-in tent on April 10th . The tent is called ‘Gangjeong Vilage Hall.’ The two are mayor Cho Kyung-Chul (right) and vice-mayor Ko Kwon-Il (left)

The ‘Bomb’ of $ 3million USD is murder

: The navy should drop the wrongful lawsuit on damage claim

By Ko Kwon-Il

April 15, 2016

Even though spring, which germinates life, has returned, a fierce cold winter wind is still striking Gangjeong village. The navy has filed an absurd lawsuit claiming 3.4 billion Korean Won [approximately $3 million US dollars] in damages against Gangjeong village.

Since April 10th, Gangjeong villagers have started a tent sit-in in front of our national service monument located in the village, demanding that the navy’s lawsuit on their right to reimbursement be dropped. We are not exceptional, and we dream of living ordinary lives of farming, feeling happiness as our children grow, and living happily together with our parents. However, we are being forced to take to the streets again.

In contrast to the navy’s celebration of the completion of the Jeju navy base on February 26, 2016, we had our own ceremony, declaring Gangjeong a “Life, Peace, and Culture Village,” and entering a new stage of our opposition movement, which began in 2007. It is in an attempt to ensure peaceful lives in our village. However, the navy’s merciless filing of the lawsuit makes it impossible for us to live peacefully.

There are 121 defendants named in this $3 million lawsuit. If each were equally liable, individual liability would be about $24,800 per person. That is a tremendous amount itself.

Another problem is that the right to indemnity is demanded in the way of joint obligation, by which the 121 defendants do not pay equal shares of the damages sought, but are differently ranked according to the size of their assets, as in the case of joint surety. Further, it is possible to focus on one individual in demanding the amount.

Also, it is expected that the trial could take more than three years, as it is a civilian case. The $3 million In damages would be subject to a 15% annual compound interest rate. If the trial lasts more than 5 years, the interest will become greater than the principal. In this case, about $49,000 would be imposed per person. If the amount is focused on small numbers of individuals and groups, they cannot avoid bankruptcy.

No matter how you regard it, the attitude of the navy and the government can hardly be considered normal. They are trying to force us to take responsibility for the financial damages claimed to have been caused by the delay of construction allegedly due to the opposition movement against the navy base.

However, due to the fact that local residents were not properly consulted and did not approve of the construction of the base, it is the state that is responsible for any delays in the construction process. The civilian complaints and resistance were direct results of the state’s aggressive policy and construction of the base.

Therefore, from the moral point of view, it is right for the state to be fully liable for damages. Regarding it as a social cost, it has been natural for the South Korean governments to be in such way in their enforcement of national policies so far.

However, the current government demands damages for construction delay from the Gangjeong village association, villagers, and the people who have worked with them to raise questions on the Jeju naval base construction.

It is the South Korean navy who has conducted the project unilaterally without any prior explanation to the villagers, not to mention the absence of proper environmental assessments or position validity reviews. It is the right and duty of the people to voice differing opinions on the hasty and undemocratic project. Even with the alleged additional costs caused from it, it is solely the responsibility of the navy and state again.

Outspokenly telling us to die, can it be really a state?

The $3 million in damages that the Korean Navy claims is problematic, also. Our resistance to the base could not have caused that much in damages. The damages are primarily the results of suspension orders from the Jeju provincial government due to the hearing regarding docking capacity for two 150,000-ton cruise ships and the uninstallation and damage of silt protectors. It is unfair that the indemnity right is to be exercised against us, but not against those who delayed the construction due to fraudulent or incompetent work.

Also, Samsung C&T demanded 36 billion won ($31.2 million USD) in compensation from the Navy for delays in the construction schedule; a 27.3 billion won ($23.8 million USD) settlement was finally reached after mediation by the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board. This was paid to Samsung C&T with funds from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) of the Ministry of National Defense.

Around $23.8 million USD covers the costs for the direct damage from the breakdown of 6 caissons (huge concrete structures used in the breakwater) and damage of 1 caisson during Typhoon Bolaven, as well as for the settlement of civilian complaints following the disassembly and production of caissons, the additional purchase of a 20,000-ton floating dock, and extension of caisson production process

The Korean Commercial Arbitration Board decided in favor of the settlement on the grounds that much of the delay was due to natural disasters, but we believe the ROK Navy must be held accountable for ignoring the natural conditions of the site they selected and for recklessly pushing ahead with the construction.

The Jeju Naval Base construction and the punitive lawsuit has broken peaceful, 450-year-old Gangjeong village to pieces, causing residents much pain and suffering. It is such an atrocious and cruel violence that the lawsuit can be considered “economic murder.”

The Park Geun-hye government has pushed her people into the death by saying ‘keep calm’ throughout the Sewol Ferry Tragedy and the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) situation. In Gangjeong, it is outspokenly telling the residents to ‘die.’ Can we say it is truly a state?

It is already the 14th day since we began our sit-in protest. For nearly 10 years, we have been trampled down by state power. Many have been arrested and imprisoned. We have faced bombs of fines while appealing for the settlement on the naval base issue. But we drew the line at the idea of selling the village association hall, which our ancestors did not give up even under Japanese imperialism.

We said: No matter how heavy and difficult the fines are and how our problems could be smoothly solved by selling our village association hall, we will not sell it, since it is our spiritual pillar.

But all those village common properties which we have tried very hard to save would disappear unless the navy lawsuit on indemnity rights against us is dropped.

When can we Gangjeong residents take our normal daily lives back? It is a time for the ROK government and navy to answer.

By Ko Kwon-Il

April 15, 2016

Ko Kwon-Il is a vice-mayor, as well as the chairman of the Anti-base committee against the naval base, Gangjeong village. His writing above appears in Korean, here , here and here.

*The above was translated by the two village international team members and proofread by Brando. The final was a little edited for readers’ easier understanding.

Photo by Choi. S. H./People lit some candles when the tent was surrounded by the police right after the villagers’ installing it. For more on the story, see here.

For more on the navy lawsuit, see

Gangjeong Villagers billed 3 MILLION USD by the Korean Navy

Navy files suit for losses against locals that opposed naval base in Jeju

Korean Lawyers Defend Village on Jeju Island from Samsung & Navy

Gangjeong Village Story: Monthly Newsletter |March 2016 Issue(1st page)

Why the village moved its association hall onto the street?

Save Jeju Now

Tag: right to reimbursement

An Appeal for Protest

The ‘Bomb’ of $ 3million USD