CINA

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From today's Hankyoreh:

Free Minu, Stop Crackdown petition

Migrant workers and human right activists hold up signs during their signature collection campaign launched at the Migrant Workers Fall Festival in Maseok City located in Gyeonggi Province that say, “Free Minu!,” Oct. 18.
     The South Korean government has arrested and detained cultural and human rights activist Minu (real name Minod Moktan) from Nepal, which has led to public criticism over its current migrant worker policy.

Also today The Hankyoreh published following editorial:

☞ Addressing abuse of migrant workers

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Two days ago(10.16) MTU(Migrants' Trade Union) released following:

Another Migrant Activist Arrested in South Korea!

        On October 8 the South Korea Immigration Authorities arrested Minod Moktan, a well-known cultural activists who has fought tirelessly for the human rights of migrants in South Korea. His arrest is the latest incident in series of targeted crackdowns against migrant activists, a pattern of repression that has drawn international condemnation. We urge you to show your solidarity by faxing a message of protest to the South Korean Ministry of Justice making the following demands:

•        Free Minod Moktan!
•        Stop the crackdown against undocumented migrant workers!
•        Stop the targeted repression against migrant activists!

I. Background of the Arrest
         At 10:00am in the morning on October 8, Minod Moktan (38, Nepal) was arrested by immigration officers in front of the office of Migrant Workers Television (MWTV), where works as the Director of the Film Production Team. He is currently imprisoned south of Seoul at Hwaesong Detention Center and could be deported at any moment.
Although Immigration Authorities claim Minod was arrested in the course of a normal raid, the manner in which the arrest was carried out shows this is clearly not the case. The immigration officers had been waiting in hiding in front of the MWTV office demonstrating that the arrest was pre-planned. Moreover, normal immigration raids are made at factories or residential areas where migrant workers are congregated, making the location of the arrest—the office where Minod does his cultural and human rights work—highly conspicuous. It is all too clear that the arrest was made in an attempt to stop Minod’s activities in defense of the human rights of migrants. What is worse, Minod’s arrest must be seen as a declaration on the part of the Lee Myeong-bak administration that it plans to go after all migrant activists fighting for migrants’ human rights in South Korea.

II. Minod’s Work as a Cultural Human Rights Activist
        Minod came to South Korea in 1992 and worked for several years as a manual laborer. During this time he experienced personally the oppression and discrimination migrant workers face at the hands of the government, employers and Korean society at large. He became convinced that cultural work and cross-culture exchange were necessary for addressing these problems.
        In 2003, during a historic sit-down protest against the crackdown on undocumented migrant workers, Minod founded the first multicultural migrants’ band in South Korea—“Stop Crackdown Band.” In 2005 Minod also helped to found MWTV, a television station that provides a ‘voice’ to migrants through which to speak about their lives and experiences. He has served as MWTV’ Co-Representative and Director of its Film Production Team. He has also produced two documentaries that look at the lives of migrant workers in South Korea. All of Minod’s cultural activities have been carried out with the goal of raising awareness about the discrimination and human rights abuses faced by migrants in South Korea and creating cross-cultural dialogue as a means to address these problems. His work is of infinite important to the movement for migrants’ rights and South Korean society as a whole.

III. Concentrated Crackdown against Undocumented Migrant Workers
        Minod’s arrest comes just as the government has declared a concentrated crackdown against undocumented migrant workers, which is scheduled to continue from October to December 20009. In the past, countless migrant workers have been injured and killed in the course of such crackdowns, during which immigration officers conduct surprise raids on factories and residences, breaking down doors and windows and dragging people out. One of the most shocking incidents occurred last November, when police blocked of the entrances and exits to an industrial complex in Maseok and immigration officers ransacked the factories and houses inside. 130 people were arrested and 10 hospitalized for injuries. 
        Far from thinking about their human rights, the right-wing administration Lee Myeong-bak has declared an all-out war on undocumented migrants. In the first half of 2009 alone the government has deported 17 thousand people; 32 thousand were deported in 2008. This is roughly twice the number of people deported during the entire term of the previous administration, which was by no means friendly towards migrants.
Like other migrants’ rights activists, Minod recognized the brutal nature of the crackdown, strongly condemned it and called on the government to implement a more just and humane policy, including a program of legalization program. 
       
IV. Pattern of Targeted Crackdown against Migrant Activists
        Minod’s arrest is not the first of its kind, but rather the latest incident in a series of targeted crackdowns against migrant activists in South Korea. Since 2002, immigration officers have used the cover of their authority to arrest undocumented migrants to target those involved in work to defend human and labor rights. The international community will remember when the government arrested and deported the president, vice president and general secretary of the Migrants Trade Union (MTU), a union founded for and by migrants, at the end of 2007 and then did the same thing to the newly elected president and vice president in May 2008. These arrests were carried out in the same manner as Minod’s, with immigration officers waiting in hiding in front of homes and workplaces in order to ambush the activists.
        This pattern of target crackdown has become so obvious that it has induced intervention on the parts of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants and the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association. It has also been widely condemned by human rights and labor organizations around the world.

Not only do we need your help to free Minod, if we do not make a strong show of force now, the government will take it as license to continue targeting migrant activists and persist in its crackdown against undocumented migrants. Please show you rage at the government and support for our struggle by sending a protest message to the fax numbers given below.

Your solidarity is more important now than ever!

A sample protest letter and adresses for your protest you'll find here.

Related article:
☞ Well-known 'illegal' Nepali immigrant faces deportation (Republica, 10.17)

☞ Voices raised against target crackdown.. (Hankyoreh, 10.16)

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Imperialist Pigswill, Made in DPRK...

...you can get here:

In "Samtaeseong" (Three Big Stars), Pyongyang's first public pig trough - err.. fast food "restaurant" - where you can "enjoy", together with N.K.'s nouveaux riches..

.."Meat and Bread", resp. the "Burgers"

Bon appétit!^^

Related contributions you can check out here:
☞ Fast food becomes popular in Pyongyang (Korea Vision, 10.14)

☞ Samtaesong fast food restaurant in P'yang (NK Economy Watch, 10.13)

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Yesterday in front of Seoul's Immigration Office in Mok-dong: during a press conference representatives of more than 20 (political, labour, civic & solidarity)organizations and groups, such as MWTV, KCTU, MTU, DLP etc., informed about Minod 'Minu' Moktan's (a Nepalese migrant worker, media activist and anchorman of MWTV, arrested last Thursday by immigration officers in Seoul) current situation and demanded his immediate release from Hwaseong Detention Center.

Related reports:

☞ 이주노동자 문화활동가 미누 석방을 촉구하는 기자회견 열려 (MWTV, 10.14)
☞ "미누에게 자유를..." (MTU, 10.15)

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“00형사를 믿은 내가 바보였다. 살려준다는 말에 복직시켜준다는 말에 너만큼은 빼줄 수 있다 … 가정을 살려야 한다는 생각에 내가 동료를 팔아먹은 죽일 놈입니다. 보지도 않은 것을 보았다고 진술을 한 것입니다. 내 진술서에 3명의 진술은 거짓 진술입니다.” -유서 가운데

8월 22일, 77일 파업에 참가했던 쌍용자동차 노동자가 경찰의 허위자백 강요에 견디지 못하고 자살을 시도했다. 노조와 회사가 ‘대타협’ 정신에 입각해 쌍용자동차 정상화를 위해 노력하겠다고 합의한 지 불과 15일만의 일이다.

아직도 경찰 헬기 소리가 귀에 맴돌아 잠을 이루지 못하겠다는 노동자. 음식물 차단으로 매일 먹던 주먹밥은 생각하고 싶지도 않고, 단수, 소화전 차단 조치로 한 여름에 씻지 못해 피부병에 걸렸고, 의료진 차단으로 외상은 곪았던 그 기억의 상흔…

아무도 원망하지 않는다는 노동자들은 그렇게 몸과 마음의 병을 치유할 시간도 없이 다시 회사와 맞서고 있다. 그들의 싸움은 아직 끝나지 않았다.

-본문 중에서

미디어충청 지음 / 메이데이 발행 / 2009년 10월 12일 / 컬러 / 208쪽 / 18,000원

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Yesterday's (bourgeois) Korea Herald reported following:

Civil servants fired for joining anti-gov't rally    

The government said Monday it has dismissed 14 head members of three civil servant unions and disciplined a dozen others for participating in anti-government rallies in July, Yonhap said.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security said a total of 105 unionized government employees belonging to the three unions, which recently merged into one, had been referred to its disciplinary committee for taking part in the July anti-government rally.

The rally was organized by opposition parties and civic activists to protest the Lee Myung-bak government's attempts to revise media bills and renovate major river basins.

Fourteen senior members of the government employees unions were fired for violating obligatory political neutrality as public servants, according to the ministry. Another 37 other employees were punished by being demoted, suspended from duty, reprimanded or with pay cuts.

 
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/10/12/200910120096.asp

Related articles (on the current attempts to suppress the labour movement):
☞ Ssangyong unionist draws jail term for organizing strike (K. Herald, 10.9)

☞ Prosecution Summons KTU Leaders (Korea Times, 10.8)

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Produced by: MWTV(10.12)

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Now this year's wave of CRACKDOWN TERROR against (undocumented) migrant workers got its first (more or less) prominent victim: comrade Minod 'Minu' Moktan

 
Last Thursday(10.8) morning Minu - almost 17 years ago he came from Nepal to S. Korea as a migrant worker - was arrested near his work place (MWTV office) in Seoul. Currently he's imprisoned in the Hwaseong Detention Center (about 70 km south of Seoul).

According to his friends and co-workers his arrest may be pre-planned by the Immigration Office/MoJ because of his repeated public criticism - as an MWTV activist and its anchorman - of the S.K. gov't, particularly its immigration (or rather deportation) policy.

In 2003/4 he also paticipated in the migrant workers resistance movement against the then wave of crackdown/deportation.

Since that time he's also the lead singer of the famous Stop Crackdown Band:

MTU's statement on Minu's arrest you can read here:
☞ 이주노동자 문화 활동가 미누를 석방하라!

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Yesterday(10.8), in protest to this year's wave of crackdown on migrant workers, MTU together with several other political, workers' and civic organisations held a press conference in front of Seoul's main Immigration Office in Mok-dong.

Here you can read what MTU's representative had to say:

I am an EPS worker form the Philippines. I am an MTU member. I am here on this occasion to express our deep sentiments on this deeply saddening situation of migrant workers especially now. I have stayed in Korea for more than three years. And for the three years that I have stayed here, I am filled with deep sadness, fear, insecurity and low self worth.

I have always thought that coming to Korea would be a means to provide for a better life for me and my family, the best opportunity for me to help my country, an opportunity for me to gain new skills, a family in the form of our employers and co-workers, a well of hope that good things will come if I worked hard enough and dedicated enough.

Instead in my entire stay in Korea I have experienced so many things that were far from my expectations. Employers tell us that they are treating us like family while working non-stop ‘til we can no longer afford to keep awake and alert while operating dangerous machines. A Filipino worker in Jeongnam died in his sleep inside his factory. We can only assume that is it because of overworking, working from 7:30pm to 2:00pm the next day every single day. He did not get his salary, no insurance, no benefits, nothing. His mother had to borrow money to send his body back home.

Despite of our sacrifices, despite of our hard work the media portrays us foreigners, us migrant workers as dangerous criminals, “dangerous Asians” as they call us. They pollute the media with their propaganda and sensationalist news. Now I realized that in Korea, traffic violations are a serious crime for migrant workers and they deserve to be reported to the public like the child-rapist who got 12 years of prison term. Is this what you call balanced news??! What about the gangster groups of migrant workers? They could do not even provide details or prove the existence of these groups. They base their reports on police speculations only. Without hard evidence these reports should be filed in the fiction story section.

I have also experienced the harsh treatment of the immigration in doing their crackdown. Despite of its unconstitutionality the government is still intensively and violently conducting the crackdown. The immigration is breaking in the migrants’ residences and factories, physically assaulting migrant workers and conniving with sajangnim (factory owner) so that they can avoid paying fines while they deport the people who have sacrificed more that their time and energy working in Korea. Our friends who have filed money claims with the Nodongbu found themselves arrested by the immigration because they refused to sign the waiver that would free the sajangnim from any obligation to them. He hated having to pay their benefits so he gave out the list of the undocumented workers to the immigration and told the immigration where these workers live. The sajangnim was very cunning. He did this so that the workers will not be caught in his factory so he can avoid paying both the fine and the benefits. These workers are treated no better than disposable cups. I urge everyone, help us stop this inhumanity.

Stop the criminalization of migrant workers!
Stop discrimination of migrant workers!
Stop Crackdown!

Already last week(10.1) MTU published following press release:
☞ The Human-hunting Crackdown Against Migrant Workers

Related articles:
☞ "Gov't Must Change Illegal Arrests on Migrants" (saladTV, 10.8)

☞ 법무부, 이주노동자 사지로 내몰 집중단속 예고 (민주노총, 10.8)

☞ 이주노동자 집중 단속에 ‘지킴이’ 발족 (참세상, 10.8)

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Denuclearization with A-bombs

When the "Dear Leader" (aka Kim Jong-il, NK's "Supreme Leader") met on Monday Wen Jiabao in Pyeongyang he pointed out, according to KCNA(10.5), as regards the issue of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula:
"The denuclearization of the peninsula was the behest of President Kim Il Sung.
Our efforts to attain the goal of denuclearizing the peninsula remain unchanged."

Well, so far, so good...

But only one day later Bloomberg reported that North Korea said dismantling the regime’s nuclear weapons is “unthinkable even in a dream”...

You got it??

Related article:
☞ Give and take on North Korea (Asia Times, 10.7)