by Felice Cohen-Joppa
[Thanks to Paco for his sharing of breaking news and the Gangjeong Village Story newsletter for background information. Please scroll down to read the first-hand account from Ddalgi (Gangjeong villager).]
Resistance to the construction of a naval base on Jeju Island, S. Korea, which began in 2007, continues with daily mass/blockades, 100 ritual bows, community meals and other activities. More than 600 villagers and supporters have been arrested over the years, and many have spent time in jail.
An intense confrontation with authorities took place in Gangjeong Village on Saturday, January 31. There are initial reports of 24 arrests throughout the day, including the mayor, vice-mayor, priests and nuns.
Activists began to gather during the previous night, building barricades and a watchtower, with the aim of protecting a sit-in tent from government-ordered demolition. The protest tent had been erected on October 24 outside of the construction site for military housing in the center of Gangjeong Village, next to the primary school.
Despite a 2013 “promise” from the Navy’s chief of staff to villagers “that there will not be military family housing without Gangjeong’s consent”, construction began last fall. The Navy merely reduced the total number of planned housing units to 72 from 690 in order to evade environmental impact assessments and receive building permits while avoiding the need for the agreement of residents.
Gangjeong Village Mayor Cho Kyung-Chul, villagers, peacekeepers and other supporters have worked in shifts since then, both night and day, to prevent cement trucks from passing through the intersection in front of the Peace Center.
Authorities threatened to demolish the sit-in tent three times in December if the protesters did not do so themselves, but held off on the threatened eviction until now.
Shortly before dawn on January 31, 1,000 police, Navy and private security guards started to arrive. They began to close off the village and set up for their demolition of the peaceful sit-in.
At 7 a.m., half an hour before the 7:30 a.m. police invasion was scheduled to begin, some of the protesters behind the barricade did the ritual 100 Bows for Peace and Life in Gangjeong in the road. Later in the morning, Catholic mass was celebrated inside the tent.
Police entered the protest area in several aggressive waves throughout the day to forcefully carry people away, often dragging them out one at a time. During the massive crackdown, some people were taken to the hospital due to injuries. After removing barricades and protesters, police dismantled the protest tent and the tower was all that remained standing, with 9 people on top of it.
Over the next couple of hours, police brought ladders, thick mats, a bus (to climb up on) and a metal container with a crane over to the tower, and mounted it to remove the nine activists. Catholic Bishop Peter Kang Woo-Il arrived during this time to support the protesters. After spending 16 hours on the tower without food and drink in the freezing cold and wind, the crackdown ended with their arrests.
Twelve of the 24 arrested activists were still in custody the following day. Updates to follow (see below).
To learn how you can support the resistance to the naval base on the Island of Peace, please visit http://savejejunow.org/act/.
For more information, visit savejejunow.org. Monthly issues of the English-language Gangjeong Village Story, published by the Gangjeong Village Association, are posted there. Information and updates can also be found at the Save Jeju Island Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/nonavalbase/.
February 3 Update: The 2 people who were not released from police custody with the other 22 arrested on Jan. 31st, Meotburi and Mr. Bang, along with Mayor Cho Gyeong-Chul and Vice Mayor Go Gwon-Il, have just had their hearings today to see if the police warrants for their further imprisonment will be accepted as valid by a judge. (In Korea the police can hold you for 48 hours without doing anything, after which they need a warrant for your imprisonment). Meotburi and Mr. Bang were taken back into police custody to await the result. Meanwhile, Mayor Cho and Vice Mayor Go, who had been released from police custody with the others have suddenly been detained by police who say they will detain them until the judge has decided whether they will be imprisoned or not. The decision will likely come this afternoon and most people are expecting that the judge will decide to imprison all four of them. Everyone is surprised and angry that the police have suddenly detained the two, Cho & Go without any reason after already releasing them!
Later: Good News!! Mayor Cho, Vice Mayor Go, Meotburi Park and Mr. Pang will be released very soon. The arrest warrant for them was turned down. Gangjeong people were about to set up a sit-in tent right in front of the police station in Jeju city for protesting the result if they were still moving to the prion or staying longer for more hearings. We are all so happy to hear this great news in the village. Some friends also did a picketing demanding the release of four people yesterday and today. Thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts. Gangjeong people are so lovely. They feel sad and happy all together with their whole heart and body.
From tonight, we can sleep well finally!
Message from the Mayor of Gangjeong Village on the afternoon of January 30
It will be very a long, cold and dark night tonight. However, people are gathering together here. Please be with us in your thoughts and prayers.
The navy has not gained the consent of Gangjeong villagers yet, refused the negotiation by the Jeju Governor and even failed to get support from Seogwipo City.
Yet, it is informed that the navy enforces the administrative execution order to remove the sit-in tent in front of construction site of military family housing at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning. Those guys, who don’t feel ashamed and are very rude, are going to storm into the village.
Villagers! We should not let them occupy our village. The navy are mobilizing police to close the roads into the protest site from very early morning.
Please come out and join to stay with us at the sit-in tent from tonight!
Or please come gather at the sit-in tent around 5 a.m. tomorrow morning.
We should pass down Gangjeong Village to our descendants without feeling shameful. When we gather our hearts as one heart and flow like a river, then we can keep our village. We are proud residents of Gangjeong.
Forever the best of best Gangjeong!
Gangjeong Village Mayor, Cho Kyungcheol
The Crackdown Against Gangjeong Will Not Halt Our Song
Originally published in Korean on 2015.02.03
By Ddalgi (Gangjeong villager, member of Peace Wind)
At dawn on the 31st of January, we climbed the watchtower. Despite having thrown it up haphazardly in the icy winds that blew all night, we erected it knowing that we could trust it to defend our village. In protest against the naval construction, we raised a kayak that had previously circled the seas of Gangjeong to the very top of the platform; a kayak that should travel on the sea was lifted to the sky. It was our destiny to be with the old village bus that has carried villagers to the provincial hall, city hall, and mainland next to the sit-in protest tent that has already endured 99 days of hardship. A barricade had been erected around the sit-in protest area.
Private contractors who had come from the mainland for the crackdown were said to be staying at a minbak (traditional Korean lodging house) only 100 meters away. Someone informed us that a light had been turned on at the lodging house and they were on the move. We could hear the marching of the police as they approached the four-way protest intersection. The military housing sit-in protest site had been cornered off even before sunrise. The people who had been told to move by the police headed onto the watchtower, bus and in front of the tent. We were tense as we couldn’t recognise what was the sound of chains clanging in the darkness. We stoked the log fire, but were unable to drive out the cold. As dawn broke and we could start to make out the people around us, the Navy appeared and said they were there to carry out the order to remove the protest encampment. Private contractors who had appeared with the Navy began shoving us back on ourselves bit by bit.
The powerful private contractors used their bulky bodies to force people back one by one. They used all of their strength and every part of their bodies to drive us back, even smacking into us with their helmets, to narrow in on us little by little. There was a lot of screaming and cursing. The police nearby looked on and did nothing. However much we shouted, we were simply left to suffer helplessly without the aid of a single policeperson. Among the private contractors there were some who looked as if they had only just turned 20 or were even younger. The younger women cried out of anger and sadness.
Then they began to drag us away one or two at a time. There were people with cut heads, twisted arms and clothing torn off, and we didn’t know if the screaming would end. We heard the shatter of the glass from the village bus windows. The police smashed the glass and entered the bus in order to drag out the people from inside and arrest them. Some members of the press who were recording or taking photos of the police violence during the crackdown were also dragged away kicking and screaming. Only the village mayor, vice mayor, a local villager, Jeju resident, priest and clergyman remained sitting atop the watchtower. The police and the private contractors working for them occupied the sit-in protest area and tore the whole thing down. Very dangerously, the police tried to get onto the watchtower. They tried to climb up without putting down any safety mats or taking any other safety precautions. Unexpectedly, they brought out a construction crane and dug up the land surrounding the tower. Following this, they immediately placed a fence around the tower. Those police standing beside the police bus then tried to climb the tower again.
It was so very, very dangerous!! People’s screams had reached fever pitch when the police started to bring out mattresses and began laying them down around the place. However, the mat they roughly spread on top of the bus was only sliding around the place. Many possible things could have gone wrong that we couldn’t have protected against. It had gotten really dark by the time Bishop Kang Woo-Il had visited and negotiated for the release of all those arrested on the condition that the protestors come down and clear the site themselves. We relieved ourselves after holding it in for more than 10 hours. A day of not sleeping, eating, or pissing had drawn to a close.
It was assumed the sit-in would be all over in a couple of hours but such was the intensity of the resistance that it lasted for about 14 hours. However, a day and then two days slipped by and there was still no sign of two people of the 24 who were to be released. Finally after two days we heard the news that a warrant for the arrest of four detainees including the mayor and deputy mayor had been requested. There seems to be no end to the lies and deceit in which the village has been enveloped. Yesterday a siren was raised in the village and today a petition signature campaign was initiated in order to counter the lies the government is feeding the people.
Due to strong resistance from the villagers the Navy held numerous public meetings on the issue of military housing which ultimately ended in failure, and in 2013 the navy chief of staff directly assured the villagers by saying that “the Navy would not build military housing without the consent of the villagers.” The villagers assumed this to mean that plans to build 532 units of military housing would be scrapped. Instead 72 units of housing were abruptly steamrolled through and land containing rows of lily greenhouses was cleared overnight and ring fenced to make way for military housing! The protest tent which stood for 99 days in front of the designated construction site was then pulled down so that construction could begin.
The struggle of a village with a population of 1,900 people engaged in an 8-year-long campaign against the construction of the Naval Base seems to have flown by in the blink of an eye. However, the once very solitary and lonely struggle suddenly became a country-wide issue and a magnet drawing many people to Gangjeong to put down roots in the village while supporting the struggle. The fence encircling Gureombi which was erected on Sept 2, 2011 suddenly became the focal point for police from the mainland who descended on the village in their droves to unleash a suppression strategy during that hot and sweltering summer. March 7, 2012 saw the beginning of the blasting of Gureombi and the resulting blockade of all entrances to the village and those moments of horror and despair as we witnessed the construction begin in earnest. The police who descended from the mainland violently sought to isolate and arrest those citizens who came in solidarity with the villagers. The huge burden of fines amassed by villagers during the years of struggle has resulted in villagers being forced to contemplate the sale of the village hall during their recent annual general meeting.
The forcible expropriation of farmland, the stolen abalone and shellfish from the sea which has fed families for generations, and Gureombi Rock, the playground for children and the depository of many childhood memories, have now became places harboring great sadness and tears. What more can be stolen from us, what more can they take we were left to ponder.
We were foolish to believe them when they promised not to build military housing. We were foolish to believe them when they promised to release all who were detained. We have no one to appeal to now and no one can resolve the issues forced upon us and all we are left with is a feeling of further isolation and frustration. Today Mt. Halla stands in great clarity over the village as it witnesses our home and our land being taken from us by the Navy, the police and the government. Where do we go from here, to whom do we turn to? However, today we continue to sing…
Il-Gangjeong (Gangjeong, the Best Village)
Where both the big Gangjeong and Akgeun streams flow
Let’s go hand in hand to beautiful Il-Gangjeong
Where the song of Tiger Island is echoed by Seogun Island
Let’s go to the Sea of Gangjeong where the waves have danced
Since ancient times, the wonderful waters of Il-Gangjeong
Let’s go together hand in hand to the village of Life and Peace.