Mun Jeong Hyeon, Our Father on the Road
Kill me ! Arrest me! I will fight with people here against military
For autonomy and Peace
Address: Next door to Camp Humphreys, 137-8, Daechuri, Paengseong, Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggidoh. Seeing the wide field of 'Hwangsaeul' every morning and night, he shed the kind of tears which only his neighbors can share with him. When he finally stopped the 20-hour hunger strike on the afternoon of the 16th December last year in front of the U.S. Embassy, he cried heart-breakingly holding the residents' hands who hadpersuaded him to end it.
Father Mun, 66 years old, a standing co-delegate of the Pan-S.Korea Solution Committee against US Extension in Pyungtaek(KCPT), worried about the broken combines and the deteriorating health of the elders. Since he joined Daechuri and started to protest, he is more than likely to have tears in his eyes as he keeps saying, "It can't be, it can't be." Managing to walk by the help of a cane, Father Mun is ready to face 'the last struggle of his life'.
"It's only a matter of time before there will be the wave of change brought about, as ourstruggle is just. We will win in the end even if injured." (photo by Heo)
"I will not go out of my own accord."
"I am old and not healthy... Daechuri might be the last place for my social practice."
His words have trespassed upon their forbidden limit. The word 'death' comes out from his lips. For him, Daechuri is not one of numerous scenes of his social practices. It is the only single battlefield 'with no place to go back to'. One day he talked about 'death' before he lay down on the street in front of the U.S. Embassy. The word 'death' again was on his tongue.
"I won't leave on my own feet if we lose the land. Never, ever, on my feet. I am fighting to death. They can make me leave only when I am dead."
"There is not much time left. Within 5 months, a decision will be made one way or another. I am where I should be. I fight because I should do so. It is not a question of winning or losing. I am quite prepared to take any disadvantages. I don't think about what will happen thereafter. I have been fighting too many years to think about the future."
137-8, Daechuri, Paengseong, Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggido.. Father Mun became 'an official resident in Daechuri' last February. He moved here 'to live and fight together, as he did in other struggles'. (photo by Heo)
His resolution was of tragic sublimity. Land purchase has been settled as of August 31st last year except for 1,200,000 pyung, but the Korean government applied for the court's arbitration to the Central Expropriation Committee. If the committee accepts the overnment's demand, the forced removal of residents will be legal. Father Mun and the residents are now living under the impending 'last battle'.
"It's such a harsh ordeal for theresidents. They are not activists. They make their living by everyday labor. So weak, so scared. I have been a lifetime 'anti-America activist' so I am okay but they are not... It's so heartbreaking to see their agony... Ten elders died in only this year, having suffered from the fear of losing their land. How weak they are before the mightier power."
"The government says it will expropriate 2,850,000 pyung of land in Pyeongtaeck alone. We just can't imagine how wide it is, and only a part of it is to be seen. How1s w come it is possible that the government thought about taking away such a fertile a piece of land and making it into a U.S. military camp...? The Ministry of National Defense didn't listen to the farmers but just sent a note saying 'give up'."
"I won't go out of my own accord. Daechuri will be the last scene of my struggles." (photo by Heo)
The U.S. military bases were never 'the guardians of peace' for the Pyeongtaek people, especially for the residents of Deachuri. To them, the US camp meant 'the sweetness of chocolates' or 'the base of humiliation'. The residents crept into the drainage of the bases and rummaged in thegarbage cans of the camps when they were children. They wrote with pencils tossed away by American soldiers, and exchanged copper wires for sweets.
Older residents who were hired as 'house boys' cleaned barracks, shined combat boots and got their bread. And in order to get fatter, the military camps now require residents' land to get fatter. How can they trust 'the peace by American soldiers'?
"Is the peace by a military power a real 'peace'? No. That is a bigger disaster. A dubious change in Washington triggered the joint military drill of Russia and China, you see? Military power versus military power. You cannot say it's the time of peace because you don't hear any gun shots."
"The Peace Walk of the Nation on the 10th of December will be named as a great resistance. The stronger the riot police gets, the more we will win. We are preparing a big struggle now." (photo by Heo)
Father Mun has always been with the most suffering people of theKorean peninsula since his ordination in the name of 'Bartholomew' in 1966. He packed up his few belongings, became one of the residents, shared chores with them, and never ran away. He slept on the road many nights and did hunger strikes in the rain. He fought, laughed, cried and got old in the street. He just wanted to be 'the one who stays' to the last.
"A priest should be at the bottom. If he goes down to a sufferingland he must stay there. To get together is the alpha and omega of the social movement. My life's mission is to be 'the last one'."
Father Mun cannot stand without a walking stick. His backache tortures him. Drinking with residents caused his stomachache and he was once seriously ill when returning from Europe to make an appeal for international solidarity.
He takes medicine for his heart everyday. "I cannot do without this," he said. But he threw it away, his lifesaver, in front of the U.S. Embassy. He let go ofeverything to which he entrusted his life.
Father Mun expressed his destiny as 'a tree standing in the way of a whirlwind'. Against the whirlwind, the candlelight vigil counts four hundred and thirty days. He prays whenever he lights a candle.
May the government reexamine the extension plan, may the community get healed, may the day come soon when we blow out the candle lights. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Standing before the Cross, Father Mun expressed his destiny as 'a tree in the way of whirlwind'. (photo by Heo)
This article has been interviewed by the journalist at the Corea Focus at the last year and now Farther Moon is wanted by the police
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