[E-rundbrief] Info 1079 - Jeju-Suedkorea - US-Militaerbasis Proteste

Matthias Reichl info at begegnungszentrum.at
So Mär 4 11:29:37 CET 2012


E-Rundbrief - Info 1079 - Gewaltfreie Proteste und Widerstand gegen 
die geplante US-Militärbasis auf der südkoreanischen Insel Jeju.

Bad Ischl, 4.3.2012

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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Gewaltfreie Proteste und Widerstand gegen die geplante US-Militärbasis 
auf der südkoreanischen Insel Jeju.

Angie Zelter/ Trident Ploughshares

www.tridentploughshares.org

3.3.2012

Here on Jeju Island in South Korea there are banners everywhere about
the upcoming World Conservation Congress (WCC) to be held here in 
September.

One of the most inspiring David vs. Goliath environmental struggles is
taking place just a few miles from where the Congress will be held. The
Gangjeong villagers 5 year struggle to save their environment needs to
be highlighted. Their sacred coastal Gureombi rocks are part of an
amazing ecosystem of soft corals and and are about to be blasted and
covered with cement to construct a navy base, where US Aegis missile
destroyers and aircraft carriers and submarines will be based. It was a
“national monument protection area“, a critical area, until the South
Korean Government made a deal with the Navy and started to dredge and
destroy the ecosystem, without conducting a feasibility study of the
environmental effects.

This coastline is the only place on Jeju where the rocks are smooth and
fresh water comes out of the rocks. The people here consider the rocks
alive, and have always used them for prayer and ancestor worship. Now
they have zero access to their coast. Tall walls block the view and
access from the village, and huge double rolls of razor wire prevent
access from the water. It is a terrible sight. They are fighting for the
endangered red crabs that live there, for the 100 dolphins that return
each year to that spot, for the soft coral habitat and rich marine life,
for the 50 freshwater springs that will be encased in concrete, and for
their peaceful and sustainable relationship to their environment.

Everyday there are hundreds of riot police confronting the peaceful
villagers. Hundreds of villagers and supporters have been arrested for
laying down in front of excavation equipment or for demonstrating
(without a permit) against the base, or for holding candlelight vigils
outside the police department. Korea’s most prominent film critic, Yang
Yoon-moo, is on a hunger strike in jail, determined to die if the
blasting gets underway.

We have been informed that the blasting may start this Tuesday. So the
issue is critical.

Please can you inform as many environmental NGOs and individuals to
write to the WCC to issue a call for the Navy to stop construction and
initiate a new assessment process to determine the necessity for the
base and provide a thorough environmental impact statement (EIS) in
accord with Korean law. These destructive activities are destroying this
ecosystem. Please do whatever you can to help protect Gangjeong
villagers and these sacred Gureombi rocks which are piled with millions
of tons of huge cement tetrapods. At the very least, the WCC should
invite the village to make a presentation and sponsor a field trip to
the site during the Congress.

The only WCC email addresses I have found are the following but maybe
someone in the UK can find more email addresses to to copy your email
letters to:-  congressforum at iucn.org    motions at iucn.org
sarah.halls at iucn.org    julia.marton-Lefevre at iucn.org

Love and peace, Angie (Zelter).

For more information and to get involved go to: www.SaveJejuIsland.org
and www.tridentploughshares.org

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The Battle for Jeju Island: How the Arms Race is Threatening a Korean
Paradise/*

BY ROBERT REDFORD February 3, 2012

Imagine dropping fifty-seven cement caissons, each one the size of a
four-story house, on miles of beach and soft coral reefs. It would
destroy the marine ecosystem. Our imperfect knowledge already tells us
that at least nine endangered species would be wiped out, and no one
knows or perhaps can know the chain reaction.

That's what is about to happen on the pristine coastline of Jeju Island,
a culturally and ecologically unique land off the southern coast of the
Korean peninsula. It seems motivated by the United States' urge to
encircle China with its Aegis anti-ballistic system -- something China
has called a dangerous provocation -- and by the South Korean navy’s
construction of a massive naval base for aircraft carriers, submarines
and destroyers to carry Aegis.

If you’re wondering why this isn’t better known, it’s certainly not the
fault of Jeju villagers. Those tangerine farmers and fishing families
have been camping out on the endangered coast for five years, putting
their lives on the line to protect it. They include the legendary women
sea divers of Jeju who harvest abalone on lungpower alone, knowing that
oxygen tanks could cause them to over-harvest.

But Jeju’s distance from the mainland has combined with military secrecy
and misleading official reports to preserve the global ignorance locals
have come to refer to as “the Jeju bubble.” As a result, hundreds of
acres of fertile farmland have already been bulldozed to prepare for
concrete, and caissons would extend this dead zone into the sea.
I learned about this last summer when I read an Op Ed in The New York
Timescalled, “The Arms Race Intrudes on Paradise” by Gloria Steinem. As
she wrote:
There are some actions on which those of us alive today will be judged
in centuries to come. The only question will be: What did we know and
when did we know it?

I think one judge-worthy action may be what you and I do about the
militarization of Jeju Island in service of the arms race.
Jeju isn't just any island. It has just been selected as one of the
“Seven Wonders of Nature” for its breathtaking beauty, unique traditions
and sacred groves. Of the world's 66 UNESCO Global Geoparks, nine are on
Jeju Island. It is also culturally unique with a tradition of balance
between people and nature, women and men, that causes it to be called
Women’s Island. It is also known as Peace Island.

Now, the proposed base is near a UNESCO-designated Biosphere Reserve,
which is also a nationally designed environmental protection area.
Indo-Pacific bottle-nosed dolphins spawn there because of the rich
biodiversity of the coast. The South Korean navy claims endangered
species could be relocated and the coral beds reconstituted; something
both scientists and villagers reject as absurd. The massive cement
structures would not only crush all marine life, but block out sunlight
critical to other ocean-based species, and the frequency signals from
submarines would bring painful deaths to whales. It has also been a fact
of life surrounding military bases that human cancer rates, violence and
sexual violence have increased.

I am moved and impressed that the residents near the coastline have been
waging a fierce nonviolent struggle to stop the base. They’ve used their
bodies to block bulldozers and cement trucks, sacrificed their personal
freedom, been beaten and imprisoned, and paid heavy fines for
“obstructing” the business of the navy and such construction companies
as Samsung and Daelim -- all to protect their homeland and an
irreplaceable treasure on this planet Earth. Though 94 percent of the
villagers voted against the base, the South Korean government is
proceeding with construction. It is also bound by treaty to let the U.S.
military use all its bases.

I think the least that environmentalists, peace activists and supporters
of democracy can do is express our outrage. You can take action now by
visiting the Save Jeju Island Campaign website.  As individuals,
tourists, professionals and citizens, you may have added access to
pressure points that only you know. For example, the International Union
for Conservation of Nature will be holding its World Conservation
Congress on Jeju Island from September 6 to 15, 2012; something that
should be used as leverage.

Secrecy and hypocrisy have let this military base get under way. Facts
and activism can stop it before it’s too late.

For more information and to get involved go to: SaveJejuIsland.org

----------------------

Angie Zelter/ Trident Ploughshares - gewaltfreie Proteste gegen 
geplanten US-Militärstützpunkt auf südkoreanischer Insel Jeju.

Aktuelle Berichte (English): www.tridentploughshares.org

Jeju website: http://www.savejejuisland.org/

Berichte in Deutsch:

http://www.zeit.de/2011/39/Aus-der-Welt-Suedkorea

Jejus Makel - Unruhe auf südkoreanischer Insel. Protest von Fischern 
und Bauern gegen den Bau einer Marinebasis. Von Rainer Werning
http://www.ag-friedensforschung.de/regionen/Korea/jeju.html

-- 

Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence
Wolfgangerstr. 26, A-4820 Bad Ischl, Austria,
fon: +43 6132 24590, Informationen/ informations,
Impressum in: http://www.begegnungszentrum.at
Spenden-Konto Nr. 0600-970305 (Blz. 20314) Sparkasse Salzkammergut,
Geschäftsstelle Pfandl
IBAN: AT922031400600970305 BIC: SKBIAT21XXX

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