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Yesterday at last the first English report about last Sunday's Protest against new USFK garrisons in the Pyeongtaek region was published on http://saveptfarmers.org/blog (Days in Daechuri). Here it comes:

Over 15,000 come to Seoul solidarity rally;

villagers defy government with rice harvest

In Seoul over 15,000 people came out on September 24 for a rally in solidarity with Doduri and Daechuri, and against the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA). See below for links to photos of the demo. Daechuri and Doduri villagers ripped apart a huge US flag in protest against the base expansion. Other activists tore down and cut through a section of razor wire fence, like the fencing that keeps villagers from their fields.

It's just a performance (unfortunately^^)

Several US Korean war veterans, some very elderly, came over from the US for the rally. Japanese activists came to the rally from from Henoko, a Japanese city fighting to keep a US military airport from relocating to their town. As the rally was going on, several activists scaled a nearby ancient city gate and hung a banner against the Pyeongtaek expulsion and the FTA, before being taken down and arrested by police. Solidarity actions were also held in other cities around the world..

Several days after the demonstration, villagers defied the Korean Ministry of Defense by beginning this season's harvest of one variety of rice. Villagers haven't been able to reach most of their fields since the police fenced them off with razor wire during the May 4th attack, beginning the police occupation of the fields that continues today. But in some close-in fields, villagers have been able to irrigate their crops and prepare for the harvest. On September 27th, villagers began to harvest one of the fields that the government claims as property of the Ministry of Defense. At one point during the day, a government helicopter buzzed down near the field to take pictures of those working in the fields. Villagers will keep harvesting the fields that they can still reach during the coming days. Villagers refuse to stop working their land as they have always done. The harvest shows the government that they aren't planning on abandoning their land before the government's October 31 expulsion deadline.

This week the nightly candlelight vigil is being held in nearby Pyeongtaek City, in front of the jail where Daechuri leader Kim Ji-tae has been held since May. Kim Ji-tae's hearing was scheduled for September 22, but prosecutors asked to postpone it until mid October, to keep Kim Ji-tae from attending the September 24th rally in Seoul. Villagers and supporters continue to demand that Kim Ji-tae be set free immediately.

For more photos, videos(VoP, Ohmynews) and reports(in Korean) about last Sunday's rally please check out this:

http://www.tongilnews.com/article.asp?mainflag=Y&menuid=101000&articleid=68084
http://www.voiceofpeople.org/new/2006092451556.html
http://www.newscham.net/news/view.php?board=news&id=37520
http://www.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=362213&ar_seq=9

http://blog.jinbo.net/tkdcjsdk/?pid=77

http://blog.jinbo.net/save_nature/?pid=150

http://www.yaalll.com/116

http://www.voiceofpeople.org/new/2006092451578.html

PS:

KCNA "reported" following about the event:

Fourth Grand Peace March Held in Seoul

 "The fourth grand peace march for a total renegotiation on the plan for the expansion of the U.S. military base in Phyongthaek" was reportedly held in Seoul on September 24 under the sponsorship of the All-People Measure Committee for Checking the Expansion of the U.S. Military Base in Phyongthaek. That day the south Korean authorities let loose a large police force and 50 odd buses of the riot police to block the surroundings of the venue of the event and roads to it for a crackdown.
 
    The peace march was preceded by "a meeting for denouncing the Defense Ministry for its forcible evacuation of dwelling houses, demanding a total renegotiation on the expansion of the U.S. military base in Phyongthaek and condemning the U.S. threat to peace of the Korean Peninsula and its demand of land for its military base" in front of the U.S. military base in Ryongsan, Seoul.
 
    The protesters tore a large Stars and Stripes into pieces and fastened police buses deployed around the U.S. military base in Ryongsan with them.
    Then there followed the fourth grand peace march against the expansion of the U.S. military base in Phyongthaek.
 
    In the course of the march, the marchers snowballed(!!^^) to more than 12,000.
    Passing by the building of the Defense Ministry, the protesters chanted "We denounce Bush administration," "Stop to expansion of U.S. military base in Phyongthaek" and so on.
 
    At the end of the grand march they started an anti-U.S., anti-war agitation here and there. After the march, "the main rally of the September 24 grand peace march" was held in the Seoul City Hall plaza.
    Several speeches were made to be followed by the reading of a resolution at the rally.
 
    The resolution said the authorities should immediately stop the expansion of the U.S. military base in Phyongthaek and crackdown on the inhabitants of Taechu-ri and Todu-ri. If the "government" and the United States continue to force the expansion of the U.S. military base in Phyongthaek, turning a deaf ear to this demand, they would face denunciation by the world peace loving forces, the resolution warned...

http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2006/200609/news09/28.htm#6