CONFLICT RETURNS TO JEJU ISLAND

The U.S. and South Korean governments plan to cover this rocky coastline on Jeju Island with cement as they build docks to port Navy warships to help surround China's coastline
Global Network board member Sung-Hee Choi (right) joins the protest in Gangjeong village on Jeju Island as construction begins

After months of delay due to elections and court hearings, the plan to build a Navy base in the Gangjeong village is now back underway. The villagers had hoped that the new governor on Jeju would protect the village but he will not. Likewise they lost a final legal battle to block the base construction. Now all that is left to the villagers will be to use their own bodies to stop the destruction of the sacred coastline.

Below is a report from Sung-Hee Choi who has gone to Jeju Island to be with the villagers during this hard time. We will keep you updated as things develop. You can help by calling the South Korean embassy in your country and tell them to "Stop building the Navy base on Jeju Island" which is called the island of peace and has been recognized by UNESCO as a global environmental jewell.

By Sung-Hee Choi (South Korea)

December 20

Today, around 8: 30 am, six stone powder dump trucks, a water-purifier tank cargo truck, a light truck, a cement-mix car, and a water car came to the planned naval base area.. The purpose of the Navy was the installation of the water-purifier tank in the planned naval base area of the Gangjeong village. Even though we intended to prevent the entry of those cars, since about 100 cement-mix cars uploaded with panel materials would come again in large size on Dec. 27, after the village meeting on Dec. 22, our opinions were collected to save our power for the D-Day. The corporation that was in charge of the construction of the water-purifier tank was the Daerim industry, the company that has been the cause of the Yongsan tragedy [where neighborhood activists were killed by the police when they tired to stop the "redevelopment" and loss of their homes and shops in their community] with Samsung [the developer].

There were about seven activists from the Pan-Island committee against the naval base, about seven villagers despite their busiest harvesting season of the year, and some peace activists in the planned naval base area of the Gangjeong stream. Despite little choice today considering the expected continuous struggles, the villagers’ council and the Pan-Island committee would resist against construction with all their power on Dec. 27, 2010.

Currently about 10 trucks are expected to come tomorrow at the similar time and the measure on that is still uncertain. However, it is expected that various struggles would be considered after the villagers’ general meeting on Dec. 22 that is the continuation of Dec. 17 meeting and many villagers and activists would gather power for Dec. 27.

Otherwise, Catholic priests peace mass against the planned naval base was held in the Joonduk coast connected from the Gangjeong stream, another absolute preservation area for an hour from 12pm.

UPDATE: For an update on the situation in the Gangjeong village on Jeju Island for Dec 21 see here