[National] Activist priest criticizes harsh suppression at Daechuri

Rev. Moon Jeong Hyeon, a leader of the Pan-national Committee to Deter the Expansion of U.S. Bases, criticised the harsh suppression of the protesters.

Interview with Rev. Moon Jeong Hyeon

Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province; Law Eeharsh
]nforcement Authorities Removed the Last Protesters Here Thursday.

A fleet of heavy equipment deployed by the Ministry of National Defense Thursday smashed a symbolic school building that had been used as the headquarters for a group of farmers and activists opposing the relocation of a U.S. military base to this farming town. Moreover, military engineers set up barbed wire fences on a vast tract of the rice field that has been seized by the government for the U.S. military.

"They want to take over our land and houses, but they cannot take our soul," Father Moon Jeong Hyeon told The Hankyoreh yesterday. He is a leader of the "Pan-national Committee to Deter the Expansion of U.S. Bases," referring to the government’s suppression of Thursday’s rallies.

The activist Catholic priest was the last person who was forcefully evicted from the Daechuri Elementary School, when he was staging a sit-in Thursday along with hundreds of local farmers and activists. Riot police were brought in to execute the administrative injunction to clear the area occupied by the protesters, resulting in bloody clashes throughout much of the day.

“I could not help crying when I saw the protesters injured and dragged away by police,” said the priest, who has long been considered a symbol of Korea's anti-dictatorship movement.

"A dark chapter of Korea’s modern history was repeating itself," he said, recalling scenes of army helicopters carrying barbed wire and thousands of riot police brutally putting down rallies. "I am obliged to compare this to the bloody suppression of the democratic movement in Gwangju in May 1980."

Both sides held a meeting to discuss their differences on April 30, at which time the ministry requested that farming activities be stopped as a precondition for negotiations. It insisted on an answer by the following day.

“The ministry said failure to meet this deadline is tantamount to our withdrawal from the negotiation,” Father Moon said. “It was much like delivering an ultimatum, and I believe the ministry never had any desire for real dialogue.”

What Father Moon sees as the seed of contention is the ministry’s lack of vision and hasty, reckless handling of the U.S. military base relocation issue, he said.

"It is no different from violence exercised by the government upon its own people to kick out the farmers who have depended on their land decades, just to build U.S. military bases," Father Moon said. "It all got off to a wrong start and resulted at last in the bloody, forceful execution of the government order."

With the school building leveled, the protesters moved their months-long candlelight vigil to the Daechuri Peace Park Thursday night.

“We hugged each other and cried, saddened by the overriding injustice we experienced,” said Father Moon. “Despite all the odds against us, we will rise and win eventually.”

Hong Yong-deok, [e-mail]