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Stop
designating Daechuri, Pyeongtaek as a "military
security zone"!
Would the Ministry of National Defense evict Korean
people from their own land by use of troops?
It was reported today that the MND would designate
the Daechuri area as a military security zone. The ideathat
they will turn a farmland without any military facilities
into a military security zone does not make legal sense.
Once the MND put it into practice, however, it will
enable the MND to order the riot police to put down
resisting farmers. The clock of the MND may go in reverse,
for only in the past age of military dictatorship could
such an illegal idea be possibly conceived. On the 11th
of April, the spokesman of the MND said that it would
have a dialogue with residents. As well, the Gyeonggidoh
police commissioner said that he had some difficulties
in mobilizing his men (he was talking about the technical
and legal aspects of their action), and that the matter
must be solved peacefully in cooperation with residents.
Having stressed "dialogue", the MND is
trying to designate residents' farmland as a military
security zone to mobilize policemen and even troops
before the dialogue even starts. The MND still emphasizes
that there is no change in its attitude toward dialogue,
even though it mentioned the military security zone.
Imagine that a wo/man thrust her/his hand to shake and
that we know s/he holds a knife in her or his other
hand. Is it possible to believe in her or his good will?
Is the National Defense for or Ruling over People?
Re-examine the plan to expand the US Base from Scratch!
As the plan for the expansion of the US base was
discussed between Korean and US defense ministries,
they had never talked it over with residents in Daechuri.
Residents have found themselves in the middle of violence
and destruction when the Ministry of National Defense
attempted to carry out their plan. The process of putting
into practice the project of the expansion of the US
base is as undemocratic as the planning process was.
Battles between residents and policemen give rise
to many casualties and prisoners.
The idea of the MND that it will carry out its plan
by use ofphysical power is quintessentially anachronistic.
The Korean people begin to be moved by the farmers'
innocent wish to be able to farm. The more forceful
the way the MND put its plan into practice, the stronger
was the people's opinion opposing the MND. As a result
of the shift in people's opinion, the police commissioner
announced that the police had difficulty in fighting
against residents on behalf of the MND.
The MND needs to recognize the Korean people's viewpoint.
Although the MND, the police and other agencies
have suppressed, threatened and appeased residents with
carrots, they were never beaten. Moreover, the agreements
on the strategical flexibility between the Korean and
US defense ministries show that the presence of the
US troops in Korea threatens world peace as well as
the peace of the Korean Peninsula. So much so that,
the views opposing the expansion of the US base are
spreading among Korean people.
Notwithstanding, the MND is now planning to enclose
the farmland by means of barbed wire entanglements in
order to prevent the residents from entering it. We
now must ask, for whom is the MND? Is it to serve
Korean people? If the MND is not for some interests
of the US, then its ear must be open to the voice of
Korean people, and the policy of the MND must respond
to the latter.
Right now, the MND must stop setting up a military
security zone and re-examine the plan for the expansion
of the US base which is opposed by the Korean people.
[Solidarity action from USA ] U.S.
Troops Out of Pyongtaek!
Statement in Support of Struggle of Residents of
Pyongtaek, South Korea
Since September 11, 2001, the Bush administration
has been actively realigning U.S. military forces all
around the world. U.S.-led occupation and regime
change have become the order of the day, as we are currently
witnessing in Iraq. In Korea, seeking to secure
regional hegemony in Northeast Asia, the United States
plans to reposition its military and Patriot Missiles
to bases along the west coast – from Pyongtaek,
Kwangju, Kunsan, Osan to Chejudo – and is calling
it the West-coast Missile Defense Belt. “Camp
Humphreys” in Pyongtaek is the most important military
base under this Missile Defense Belt realignment plan
because it already has the infrastructure - airport,
seaport, and railroads – necessary to support
future U.S. military actions.
In 2003, the United States and South Korean governments
agreed to expand Camp Humphreys from 3,734 to 6,585
acres and displace thousands of peasants in the process.
Since the decision, Pyongtaek residents, mostly
peasants in their 60s and 70s who have worked on small
farms on this land their entire lives, have been fiercely
opposing the U.S. military’s seizure of the land. This
land has been their life and spiritual sustenance for
generations. In South Korea, people all across the country
have joined in the call for an end to the base’s expansion.
Pyongtaek is now a focus of struggle for the entire
South Korean movement. It is a struggle for the people
of Pyongtaek and a struggle for the right to live with
dignity; a struggle to protect land for people and food
and life over land for militarism and war and death.
In recent months, the South Korean military riot
police have violently attacked protesters many times.
On March 15, 40 residents were arrested while peacefully
demonstrating. Although most were released, two
human rights activists, Park, Raegoon and Cho, Baeki
are being held and charged with “interfering with government
officials in execution of their duties.” As the
U.S. pushes forward with its expansion plans we can
only anticipate the attacks on and repression of protestors
will intensify.
We, the undersigned U.S.-based organizations and
individuals recognize that the struggle against the
expansion of Camp Humphreys in Pyongtaek is an important
part of the global movement against U.S. imperialism.
We send our solidarity and support to the Pyongtaek
residents and the thousands of South Korean citizens
who are courageously engaged in this fight.
We declare the base expansion in Pyongtaek to be
a direct infringement on the residents' right to life
and self-determination. We condemn the Bush administration
for continuing to pursue a policy of military expansion
and occupation in South Korea, and the Roh Moo Hyun
administration for being complicit with this process.
We call on the South Korean government to stop the stealing
of land from local peasant communities, to discontinue
police attacks on demonstrators and to release the imprisoned
activists. We call on the U.S. government to stop
expansion of the Camp Humphries immediately and to withdraw
all U.S. troops from South Korea.
April 9, 2006
Endorsing Organizations
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition,
Anakbayan NY/NJ, Audre Lorde Project, Axis of Justice
- Los Angeles, BAYAN USA Boston, Korea Friendship Association,
CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities , Channing and Popai
Liem Education Foundation, Congress for Korean Reunification,
Corean Action Network for Unification, Desis Rising
Up and Moving, Fabulous Independent Education Radicals
for Community Empowerment, Filipino Workers Association-
San Francisco, First Quarter Storm Network-USA , Ignacio
Martin-Baro Fund for Mental Health and Human Rights,
Institute for Democratic Education and Culture -Speak
Out, International Action Center, John Feffer, author
ofNorth Korea/South Korea: U.S. Policy at a Time of
Crisis, Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV)
, Korea Truth Commission-Joint Office ,Korean American
Women for Peace , Korean Americans for Peace (KAP):
Mindullae, Minjok Tongshin, Korea Democratic Labor Party
Support Committee in U.S., Korean-American Women for
Peace/LA Chapter, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance
(KIWA), Korea Truth Commission/U.S., Korean American
National Coordinating Council, One Korea LA Forum, Pan
Korean Alliance for Reunification/U.S, Korean Americans
United for Peace , Korean Democratic Labor Party –
US East Coast , Korean Student Association of the Union
Theological Seminary , Korean Youth Cultural Center
, Los Angeles Indigenous People’s Alliance, National
Committee to Free the Cuban Five, New York Solidarity
against the Deployment of South Korean troops to Iraq
, Nikkeis for Peace and Justice ,Nodutdol for Korean
Community Development NYCommiittee for Human Rights
in the Philippines, Okinawa Peace Fighters, Philippine
Peasant Support Network (Pesante)-USA Troops Out Now
Coalition United For Peace and Justice
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