27개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Last Friday the Yongsan Countermeasure Committee(Yongsan Coalition) released following request for int'l solidarity:
[urgent action] Justice for Yongsan!
Friends and comrades,
In Yongsan, Seoul, South Korea, we have an emergency. January 20th, 2009, 1,500 police including the Korean SWAT team made a surprise attack on comrades who were trying to resist forced eviction and the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) “redevelopment” (or gentrification) program. This so-called “redevelopment” program has continued since the 1960s as an effort to transfer capital, shelter and wealth into the hands of large corporations like Samsung, Posco and Hyundai. Many people can’t afford to pay rent in these apartment complexes and buildings that these huge corporations are establishing with the support of the SMG.
After a large group of comrades who were occupying a building in Yongsan, Seoul, were surprise attacked on January 20th, 6 people were killed in a fire.
The SMG is trying to prosecute members of the National Evictee Alliance who were taking part in the occupation. These comrades are still having a sit-in struggle at the same building in Yongsan. A few months ago, the Candle Light Media Center was established in a building behind the sit-in struggle site. The media center is where many activists gather to work on media projects together.
The prosecutor’s investigation team (who were investigating the “Yongsan Disaster” in which 5 people died on Jan 20) consisted of 100 of the most elite investigators who wrote a 10,000-page investigation document. This investigation team interviewed passer-bys, the police authorities, the firefighters, the SWAT team chain-of-command, and investigated the site of the disaster. The prosecutors now have access to this 10,000-page investigation report and they are claiming that 20 members of the National Evictee Alliance are responsible for the deaths and that no police (or government) have responsibility. The court ordered the prosecutors to release the 10,000-page investigation report to the defending attorneys, but the prosecutors refused to release 3,000 pages of the document.
So far, the prosecutors have released 500 pages of the 3,000 hidden pages of the investigation report. These 500 pages have shown that the National Evictee Alliance comrades never attacked anyone, but used molotov cocktails in self-defense when police and thugs hired by construction corporations attacked. The 500 pages also show that rank-and-order police (including SWAT team) were not informed that the building contained paint thinner while the high-ranking authorities were aware of this fact when they made the decision to attack the occupied building.
The defense attorneys are suspicious that the remaining 2,500 pages provide evidence that the police and SWAT team attack was reckless and resulted in the deaths of 6 people. The trial is currently pending because the defense team is trying to take the case to the supreme court.
We need these 2,500 pages that the prosecutors are trying to hide from the defense team. We also need our right to shelter protected and not subjected to the brutal market economy.
Comrades!
Your comrades in Yongsan, Seoul need your help!
Please do something to help because this state apparatus needs people from around the world to shout at it!
I bet you can’t have a solidarity demonstration at your local Korean Embassy! Or can you?
I bet you can’t send an e-mail to the prosecutors and demand that they release the remaining 2,500 pages of the investigation report! I bet you’re way too lazy! Or maybe not?
Please!
Signed,
Yongsan Coalition (http://mbout.jinbo.net)
contact: mbout@jinbo.net
Here’s the e-mail address of the prosecutors: proskorea@spo.go.kr
Here’s the prosecutors’ phone number: 82-2-3480-2337
Here’s the prosecutors’ fax number: 82-2-3480-2405
First of all: Today's Korea Herald reported that "the chairman of the KCTU acknowledged its responsibility for the violence on Saturday, saying there were some union members who were out of the control."(*)
About last Saturday's "National Workers Rally" in Daejeon today's ("left-liberal") Hankyoreh writes following:
Excessive use of force by police during
KCTU and KCTWU labor rally
Labor rally in Daejeon leads to mass arrest of delivery drivers and unionists
Some 457 workers were arrested, and an estimated 150 workers and police injured during a clash between protesters and police at a labor rally convened in Daejeon on Saturday by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU, Minju Nochong) and the Korea Cargo Transport Workers’ Union (KCTWU). The government reacted to KCTWU’s decision Saturday to launch a general strike by threatening a harsh response and banning future KCTWU and KCTU demonstrations. Observers are concerned about a precipitating clash between labor and the government.
The KCTU and KCTWU convened a rally attended by some 15,000 unionists at Nammun Square in front of the Daejeon Government Complex on Saturday afternoon, and demanded the return to work of delivery drivers fired from Korea Express and the labor rights of ‘specially-employed’ laborers. After the rally, participants conducted a march, during which police moved to suppress the demonstration with clubs and water cannons, leading to a heated clash with resisting, flag-waving demonstrators.
Daejeon police said the protesters, armed with bamboo spears, severely injured two policemen and damaged 99 vehicles, including police buses, and 155 pieces of police equipment. They said they would detain those who assaulted police and destroyed public property, and that they soon planned to arrest the protest leaders, including the leadership of the KCTU and the KCTWU.
The police added they would seek compensation and ban future demonstrations by the two unions. When asked about the matter, Park Sang-hyeon, director of the Korea Cargo Transport Workers’ Union’s legal bureau, said that after breaking up the demonstration, police indiscriminately arrested workers, even those who were merely having dinner or were on their way home. Park said in the end, the police should be held responsible for their use of excessive force.
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/355443.html
* Most likely KCTU's chairman is a bit "out of control"!!??
And here some voices of the S.K. bourgeois media:
☞ Police Seek Arrest Warrants for 32 Violent Truckers (K. Times)
☞ Truckers threaten mass walkout (JoongAng Ilbo)
☞ Cargo workers threaten strike (Korea Herald)
Before y'day(5.16) the "Nat'l Workers Rally" - to mark the anniversary of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, but also to defend labour rights/achieve better working conditions, higher wages etc.. - took place in Daejeon, S. Korea. At least 10,000 workers attended it. Among them about 7,000 organized cargo truck drivers. And while the Korean Cargo Transport Workers' Union announced at the same time that they will go soon on "general strike" the state "authorities" used the opporunity to show them how they intend to deal with the strike(*): thousands of riot cops were sent to attack the rally. But thousands of workers resisted during the following fierce street battles. Ultimately at least 150 union activists were injured and 476 arrested..
* The gov't said it will punish truckers who strike, and will consider severing fuel subsidies, suspending drivers’ licenses and banning future KCTWU/KCTU demonstrations, according to K. Herald and Hankyoreh.
Related reports, incl. many pictures:
☞ 화물연대 '총파업 만장일치 가결'노동과세계
☞ 연행자 수 460명 넘어.."경찰이 미친 것 같다"
☞ 457명 연행한 경찰 "민주노총 지도부 조기 검거"
While the members and supporters of the Countermeasure Committee that was formed to address the Yongsan Massacre are preparing for tomorrow's struggle day..
..the repression against the activists and their supporters is continuing, as you can read in the following article (Hankyoreh, 5.15):
Defendants of Yongsan trial file a countersuit
They protest the trial’s fairness and continue to demand prosecutor’s compliance with the court order for full disclosure of investigation records
The six evicted persons who were indicted on matters related to the Yongsan tragedy filed a countersuit with the 27th criminal court of the Seoul Central District Court on May 14.
They are saying, “The court has tried to proceed with the trial, although the prosecutors have not followed the court’s order to make the investigation records public. We are concerned about the unfairness of the trial.” The court could decide to throw out the countersuit if they find an intention to delay the trial.
Meanwhile, the police arrested seven people, including the defense lawyer Kwon Young-kuk, who participated in a protest to criticize prosecutors and to call for public disclosure of investigation records related to the Yongsan tragedy.
Kwon Young-kuk, the lawyer working on behalf of victims and bereaved family members of the
Yongsan tragedy, is arrested by police for participating in a demonstration to criticize prosecutors
held in front of the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office in the Seocho neighborhood of Seoul, May 14.
Even before the protest began, members of countermeasure council that was formed to address the Yongsan tragedy and police were engaged in struggle as the police moved to prevent the protest from happening.
After almost 30 minutes of struggling, approximately forty council members held the protest during which, they issued an open letter to prosecutors, saying, “Prosecutors have infringed upon the defendants’ rights to a fair trial and denied the spirit of criminal procedure laws.” They added, “Prosecutors should disclose the 3,000 pages of investigation documents that they still have not shared with defense counsel.”
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/355092.html
Related article:
☞ Evicted residents from Yongsan file charges against prosecution.. (5.13)
From today's Hankyoreh:
The Democratic Labor Party, the New Progressive Party, the Creative Korea Party, lawmakers Chun Jung-bae and Moon Kook-hyun, former lawmakers Kim Tae-hong and Im Jong-in, MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society, People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, the Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice, the Journalists Association of Korea, the Korean Producers and Directors’ Association, the Pusan International Film Festival(PIFF), the Jeonju International Film Festival(JIFF), the Bucheon International Fantasy Film Festival(PIFAN), Institute of Financial Economics, and the Institute for Korean Historical Studies. This is the list of names that appear in data on violent and illegal demonstrations held in 2008 submitted by police to Democratic Party lawmaker Cho Young-taek...
It is said that police designated the 1,842 groups of the People’s Conference Against Mad Cow Disease and 50 groups of the Korea Alliance for Progressive Movement as of “illegal and violent protest groups”... (the complete editorial you can/should read here!).
Yeah.. PIFF, JIFF, PIFAN etc.: "illegal and violent protest groups"?
At least! Possibly also "pro-communist", "terrorist" entities.. Who knows??
Yesterday's "top story" by KCNA: Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, arrived in Harare on Monday to visit the Republic of Zimbabwe.
According to KCTV(5.11) Kim Yong Nam visit has been "enthusiastic welcomed by Robert Mugabe, the military leadership and the chief of the national police.."
But not everyone in Zimbabwe welcomes the DPRK delegation in general and Kim Yong Nam in particular, as you can read in one of today's top stories in The Zimbabwe Telegraph (influential newspapers in the south African country):
MDC-M official issues ultimatum to Korean Delegate
The leader of the anti-Mugabe camp in the MDC has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the DPRK President of the Presidium of Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic Republic of North Korea Mr Kim Yong Nam to leave Zimbabwe.
He indicated to Mr Kim that his visit was not welcome since the DPRK was responsible for training the fifth brigade which massacred the people of Matebeleland(*) and Mr Sikhala indicated that his aunt was a victim in that horrendous and hellish crime against humanity.
Moreover Mr Sikhala spelled out that North Korea represents the most satanic outpost of tyranny and urged Mr Kim to go and organise elections in his country where people are languishing from unmitigated poverty and gross human rights abuses.
Mr Sikhala further stated that Mr Kim comes from the same club as Robert Mugabe and must not have the leisure of visiting countries which respect human rights.
Shockingly, Mutambara, Mugabe’s blue-eyed boy and his master, Robert Mugabe were the ones who were seen flanking the disgraceful despot from North Korea and it is believed that the controversial Robotics Professor was enthusiastically inquiring about nuclear technology.
Mutambara’s master, Robert Mugabe later thanked North Korea for training facilities which they rendered to Zimbabwe and weaponry and this has infuriated thousands from Matebeleland whose relatives where massacred by the North Korean trained Fifth Brigade...
Mr Sikhala said that he is closely monitoring the movements and meetings being held between Mugabe, Mutambara and the North Korean despot and urged Zimbabweans to be on high alert.
http://www.zimtelegraph.com/news_article.php?cat=23&id=670
* In 1981 Kim Il Sung dispatched 106 "military specialists" to train the 5th Brigade of the Zimbabwean army, which went on to commit numerous atrocities in the rebellious Zimbabwean region of Matebeleland that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 20,000 people.
김영남위원장과 짐바브웨대통령 회담 (조선중앙통신)
Related stuff:
☞ Kim Yong Nam Feted by Zimbabwean President (KCNA, 5.12)
IMC S.K.: This is the third broadcast of Be the Media, a program of the alternative radio station Media Redevelopment Action Radio at the Candle Light Media Center in Yongsan, Seoul, South Korea. Be the Media is a radio program project of Korea Indymedia. DJ Dope and Giraffe are MCing this show.. (more about it here!)
Listen to the program to find out more about what's going on in Seoul, South Korea!
Related link:
☞ Media Redevelopment Project(YongsanRadio)
STREET ART
Impressions from the "Yongsan Village Festival" (5.10)
(source of the pics: 두바퀴)
Related video:
☞ 평화로운 마을...용산!!
While the residents and activists of the area where 110 days ago the Yongsan Massacre took place had planned for yesterday and today an impressive "Village Festival" the cops - at least for yesterday - had a complete different schedule! From the morning hundreds of riot cops (including their water cannon vehicles) closed the area(*) and declared the "Village Festival" as an "illegal rally"!
Today the situation was a bit relaxed (the cops lifted the closure partially), as you can see in the video impressions, captured by comrade "Hong Gil-dong..". But because of yesterday's police terror today's part of the "Village Festival" was far away from festive mood..
* Here some pictures from yesterday:
(source of the pics: K. Human Right News, 5.10)
More pictures/reports from yesterday's "festival" you can see/read here:
☞ 용산마을잔치..
☞ 용산참사 희생자 추모미사 열려... 경찰, 추모집회 저지
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yeah! please spread and circulate this widely!!부가 정보