'재개발'/철거민투쟁 #2

"Redevelopment" Without Resistance: Mass Eviction!

First of all: Y'day in the morning - once again - seven activists who are resisting the "redevelopment" project in Seoul's Yongsan district were arrested, according to IMC S.K.!

Meanwhile in Seoul's towntown area - between Sejong-no and Dongdaemun/Eulji-ro and Jongno-gu - the destruction of entire residential quarters are in progress without pause!

"Under the city's New Town plan, up to 98,742 homes are expected to be torn down in the year 2010 alone", Korea Herald wrote Feb. 5. This means that tens of thousands of families will be evicted until the end of next year!

But while the resistance in Yongsan is now (more or less) well documented, the fate of many other areas (including their residents) is possibly unknown/unoticed..

For example Samgak-/Suha-dong.
The residential area was located between Eulji-ro and Cheonggyecheon.

2004, November 7, it was a Sunday, at 4 o’clock in the morning about 1.000 criminal gangsters (hired by the construction mafia) as usual backed by large units of the riot cops (unit 1001…), stormed the area. By using massive violence they drove the people, mainly still in their beds, out off their homes. After 13 hours the gangsters left the area and 150 shops, offices, workshops and restaurants were almost complete destroyed (the entire story, incl. many pics, you can read here!).

Now, almost five years later, despite massive organized...