Warm welcome for international supporters in resistance to US/S. Korean naval base : by Angie Zelter

[레지나]

http://www.cndcymru.org/warm-welcome-for-international-supporters-in-resistance-to-uss-korean-naval-base

Sun. February 26, 2012

Warm welcome for international supporters in resistance to US/S. Korean naval base

The villagers of Gangjeong in Jeju, South Korea, have welcomed with open arms around 45 internationals from 12 different countries who have come in response to the plea for support from the village.

 The South Korean Navy is building a new base just 300 miles from the Chinese mainland to become a port for U.S. Navy Aegis destroyers fitted with the missile defence systems. The 400-year old Gangjeong village on Jeju Island is being destroyed to build the base.

On Friday the supporters took part in a Buddhist/Catholic prayer for peace session outside the main gate of the site. Later they listened as the old people of the village talking of their sorrow at the destruction of their coastline. Young and old come together most evenings to sing and dance and plan their resistance together.

On Thursday the international group had been taken around the Jeju April 3 Peace Park which had been established as a means of compensating Jeju communities for the damage and loss incurred in the violent repression that began in 1948.

Angie Zelter from Knighton in Powys said: “I have never been in a village so united against a military base. There are flags and beautiful banners everywhere declaring this a village for peace and life. Art work and murals are along the road and decorating the obscene wall going up around the construction site which they call the destruction site. These art works celebrate the natural beauty of the area.”

 

Photo  Prayer session at gate of the site. Angie Zelter is in the blue top with vertical stripes

Notes:

Jeju’s post WW2 trauma.

Jeju was fortified by the Japanese in the 2nd World War and 60,000 Jeju men were taken by force to Japan to work in factories. When the Japanese flag was eventually taken down after the war it was immediately replaced by the US flag and the US military Government worked to ensure the division of north from South Korea which eventually led to the Korean War and continuing conflict. Jeju people refused to vote for this separation and became known as the ‘red island’. A demonstration on April 3rd 1948 was halted by police, killing 6 people, and the following general strike was cruelly put down. Some young people were arrested and tortured and this led to a small armed uprising which then enabled the US Military Government to order a tough crackdown. 4 months later over one ninth of the population had been killed (30,000 people), 84 villages razed to the ground and a scorched earth policy established over the whole island with thousands becoming refugees in the mountains. Subsequently they were not allowed to talk about the massacre and it was not until 2005 that the Government of Korea officially reported on it and President Roh Mee-hyun apologised for the Korean Government’s part. (The US has never apologised nor has it been officially investigated.) The President then declared the Island of Jeju an ‘Island of Peace in order to sublimate the hurts of the Jeju oppression.

Angie Zelter is a resident of Knighton in Powys. She is a winner of the Right Livelihood Award and is nominated for 2012 Nobel Peace prize.

For more information on the resistance to the base see http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/49kU/1368 and also updates on the facebook of No Naval Base on Jeju and website:
http://www.savejejuisland.org/

Contacts:

Angie Zelter 00-44-78-3535-4652.

Trident Ploughshares www.tridentploughshares.org

[들꽃님]

엔지 선생님~~~~ 저 여유로운 미소^^ 또 하나의 보석이 강정에서 빛나고 있습니다. 참으로 고맙습니다.