More arrests resist the destruction that is paving the way for a naval base on Jeju Island; Catholic priest injured during Stations of the Cross at site

Posted on April 13, 2012

Photo by Jo Yak Gol

from Sung-Hee Choi

On the morning of April 12, three women activists were arrested in front of the construction gate at the site of the planned naval base on Jeju Island.  Different from the days before the election when the police usually fixated people from gathering, they arrested those when they blocked the gate. The three were charged with obstruction of business.  They were moved to the Dongbu police station.

Five more people were arrested that day in Beobhwan, neighborhood village of Gangjeong, when they blocked a naval base construction truck.  One of the five was simply taking a photo but police arrested him also, saying he was a leader of the team.

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~ from FCI Dublin, by Susan Crane

Posted on April 11, 2012

Easter Greetings from Susan Crane
from the Disarm Now Plowshares blog

Dear Friends,

Thanks for your prayers, letters, books and encouragement. Your support means so much to me. And thanks for your work that brings us all closer to the Beloved Community.

I was walking back to the housing unit from dinner the other day, talking to a friend. She was reflecting on how contagious yawns are.  Yes, I said, and violence is just as contagious as yawns! Here, in prison, it’s a matter of honor and respect; if someone hits you, you hit them back. And in our national dealings, the same is true. The exchange of violence is expected, accepted, and considered virtuous and reasonable. At least I can introduce the idea that there are people who think there are better solutions to problems than the use of violence and revenge.

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Good Friday arrests at 6 U.S. nuclear weapons related sites

Posted on April 7, 2012

photo by Karl Mondon

LIVERMORE LAB, CALIFORNIA

By Denis Cuff
Contra Costa Times

Thirty four demonstrators were arrested peacefully Friday morning during an annual nuclear weapons protest at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

Keeping with a Good Friday protest tradition, some 100 to 150 protesters prayed and sang at the intersection of Vasco and Patterson Pass roads. Then they marched to the main gate of the lab and blocked it from about 8 to 10 a.m., said Don Johnston, a lab spokesman.

The event was peaceful, and lab employees entered and exited the facility at two other entrances while the main gate was blocked, he said.

The 34 demonstrators who chose to be arrested were cited and released, said Carolyn Scarr, program coordinator with the Berkeley-based Ecumenical Peace Institute.

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Father Kim and Reverend Lee released

Posted on April 5, 2012
Rev. Lee Jeong Hoon got released with 1 year suspended sentence , 2 years probation and 100,000 won fine.

He was arrested with Fr. Kim Jeong-Wook on March 9 when they broke the fence. Thanks to them, many people could enter the Gureombi Rock at the time.

(April 4 photo by Baek David Yongeseok of Rev. Lee Jeong-Hoon)

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Hundreds arrested as Europeans act against NATO

Posted on April 2, 2012

Press release from NATO Game Over campaign at Peace Action in Belgium

http://www.vredesactie.be/item.php?id=313

Around 2:00 a.m. April 1,  800 peace activists from more than ten European countries gathered near NATO headquarters in Evere, Brussels. 500 people tried nonviolently to enter the NATO compound. About 20 activists succeeded to enter the military site, 483 people were arrested. At the main entrance of the NATO headquarters 300 supporters cheered the intervention teams.

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Another activist resisting Jeju naval base to be sent to prison, and more Jeju resistance updates

Posted on March 31, 2012
‎[March 31] One more activist is to be imprisoned: Mr. Lim Ho-Young, village media team leader
Mr. Lim Ho Young, village media team leader who has done important media work with the nickname ‘thinkunit’ and has initiated a small peace park in the Samgeori (three way intersection) was arrested on March 29.  He got a warrant of arrest yesterday and the court made the decision to imprison him on March 31. He is told to be moved to the Jeju prison next week. When he was taken to the police station, he was bleeding in his forehead hit by police camera. The arbitrary charge against him is “obstruction of government affairs.”

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Koodankulam fasters relent; government lifts siege of villagers

Posted on March 30, 2012

Bernard Pierre Wolff / Getty Images

Copyright © 2012 The Telegraph, Calcutta, India
Chennai, March 27:
The hunger strike by the protesters against the Kudankulam nuclear power station was withdrawn this evening.

Members of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy, led by convener S.P. Udayakumar, had been on hunger strike at Indinthakarai village, 3km from the plant, for the last 10 days after the Jayalalithaa government announced on March 16 its decision to have the plant commissioned.
The state government had also clamped prohibitory orders in four villages around the plant and arrested 80 people for staging a roadblock near the site.

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Persistent resistance continues on Jeju Island

Posted on March 25, 2012
from Sung-Hee Choi
‎
[March 24] 17th day of people’s war against blast/ 13 times of blast-the 2nd biggest after March 21

Only a day after March 23 when the Prime Minister Office and Jeju Island government made an agreement to go through layout verification process on the docking capacity of 150,000 ton cruise ships in the so called civilian-military dual use port, though based only on the simulation result analysis by the Ministry of National Defense, the navy enforced blast on the exposed rock parts of the Gureombi-13 times, starting at 3:50pm, March 24.

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Largest number of arrests at a U.S. anti-nuclear power demonstration in more than 20 years

Posted on March 24, 2012

Police arrest the first protesters to cross the line onto Entergy property in Brattleboro. Photo by Alan Panebaker

ACTIVISTS IN 3 STATES DEMAND:  SHUT DOWN VERMONT YANKEE

On March 22, the day after the original operating license for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant expired, nearly 150 people in three states were arrested at protests demanding that the reactor be shut down now.

Civil resistance actions organized by the Safe and Green Energy Alliance took place at reactor owner Entergy Nuclear’s local office in Brattleboro, as well as corporate offices in White Plains, New York and New Orleans, Louisiana.

It was the largest single-day tally of arrests for opposing nuclear energy in the United States since October 14, 1989, when 475 people were cited for trespass when they went over the fence at the Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire.

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Resistance continues as blasting for naval base accelerates on Jeju Island

Posted on March 23, 2012

Activists struggle to remove razor wire and enter naval base construction site. Jejusori.net photo.

by Jack and Felice Cohen-Joppa, the Nuclear Resister

Despite growing condemnation at home and abroad, Korean navy contractors backed by hundreds of special police brought in from the mainland to repress local protest have for the last two weeks been dynamiting the unique volcanic coastline on Jeju Island to prepare the site for construction of a new navy base. The area near Gangjeong village is known as the Gureombi for its rounded rock forms that have long been regarded by locals as sacred. Scores of people – from local residents to church and NGO leaders and international observers – have been arrested, beaten, jailed and some deported during that time.

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