>
> WW News Service Digest #105
>
> 1) San Francsico rally targets toxic racism
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 2) Korean survivors recount U.S. war crimes
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 3) Protest hits Ft. Benning, Ga.
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 4) Socialist campaign takes off in Ohio
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 5) SEIU for new trial for Mumia
> by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 8, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>SAN FRANCISCO RALLY TARGETS TOXIC RACISM
>
>Scores of protesters demonstrated in front of the San
>Francisco Federal Building May 25 to demand a thorough and
>extensive clean-up of a naval toxic dump in a predominantly
>African American district of this city.
>
>For decades the Navy has dumped toxic substances in the
>Bayview Hunters Point area. It is the only federal
>superfund site in San Francisco and the most contaminated
>property in the city.
>
>In February the Navy estimated that it would cost $266
>million to clean up the site. Officials are now proposing
>allocating just $105 million to simply cover the site with
>asphalt--in other words, not clean it up at all, just let
>the community continue to be exposed to significant levels
>of toxic poisons.
>
>Meanwhile, on the other side of town near the rich Marina
>district, millions of dollars keep pouring in to clean up
>and upgrade the former Presidio Army area.
>
>The May 25 protest signifies a growing opposition to the
>government's handling of the clean-up in Bayview Hunters
>Point. It was called by the Community 1st Coalition and
>includes a number of environmental groups, including
>Communities for a Better Environment, Greenaction, and
>Literacy for Environmental Justice.
>
>
>
>--Story & photo by Bill Hackwell
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
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>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
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>
>
>Message-ID: <001b01bfccf9$e77b8c60$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Korean survivors recount U.S. war crimes
>Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2000 21:20:29 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 8, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>TARGETING CIVILIANS:
>KOREAN SURVIVORS RECOUNT U.S. WAR CRIMES
>
>By Deirdre Griswold
>Yoh Cho-ri, Chongryun County, south Korea
>
>For 50 years they had kept their memories to themselves.
>If they tried to speak of what happened to their families,
>their neighbors, they were called "communist sympathizers"-
>-and that could be a one-way ticket to jail.
>
>But today, all over south Korea, older people are talking
>about the Korean War. Many of them are eager to shed the
>burden of their painful stories--especially of those
>terrifying days in the summer of 1950 when U.S. forces came
>storming through their valleys. A solidarity delegation
>from abroad visited several villages in the area of
>Kyungsang on May 16 and 17 at the invitation of the
>National Alliance for Democracy and Reunification of Korea
>(NADRK).
>
>"I was 20 years old in 1950 when the U.S. soldiers came,"
>Lee Song-Il of Yoh Cho-ri village told the group of
>visitors from abroad. "We grew accustomed to hearing
>fighter jets and bombers. There was a temporary U.S.
>military base on the other side of the road."
>
>By mid-August the war, which had started in June, had
>grown intense in this area. There were thousands of
>refugees trying to get away from the fighting.
>
>Lee relived that memorable day, August 25, as though it
>were yesterday. "About 2,000 people were crowded into this
>valley. Civilians were being herded through the area by
>Korean soldiers." He pointed along the road bordered by
>peaceful rice paddies, pale green against the wooded hills.
>
>"The shooting started before dawn. Houses were on fire. It
>was a chaotic situation. The people were afraid they would
>be bombed, so they ran to the base, thinking the U.S.
>planes wouldn't bomb there.
>
>"But shots came from the base. They ran back and we were
>all lying down. When the shooting stopped, they tried to
>cross the road again. There was another round of shots from
>the base. Three times the people were shot at.
>
>"The U.S. Army came into our field. They demanded the men
>stand up and show ID. If they didn't have ID, they were
>shot. I couldn't count how many were killed. Months later
>the Korean military buried the dead in a mass grave--about
>70 to 80 people."
>
>Another man spoke up from the local Investigations
>Committee that was formed just a few months ago. "The
>entire village was burnt," said Hwang Nam-Yon. "Thirty-
>seven homes. My brother-in-law was killed, my younger
>brother, too. He was in sixth grade. Two of my cousins were
>killed.
>
>"In March of this year we sent a report to the government
>and the local authorities," said Hwang. "We got the same
>answer from all of them--`Let's wait.' "
>
>EUI-RYUNG: `WE WANT THEM TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE TRUTH'
>
>It was a short drive to another village in Kyungsang
>Province--and another massacre site. Purple wysteria
>blossoms sweetened the hillsides, as they must have done in
>those summer days half a century ago.
>
>In the village of Eui-Ryung, Lee Chae-Gee meticulously
>described the events of Aug. 20, 1950. "Around 4 p.m. U.S.
>surveillance planes flew over the area for about 30
>minutes. Then four fighter jets came in so low the people
>could see the pilots. They fired their guns and dropped six
>bombs. Around 100 people were hurt and 53 died. Fifty
>houses were burned.
>
>"Most of those who survived are still alive and suffering.
>We are asking both the U.S. and Korean governments to
>acknowledge the truth."
>
>Kim Ie-Myung, 74, showed the place in his leg where he had
>been injured and the scar on his head where he still
>carries a piece of shrapnel.
>
>CHANG JI-RI:`WHY WOULD THEY BOMB US?'
>
>In Chang Ji-ri, Ham Ahn County, a light rain was falling
>as the solidarity delegation arrived. The villagers had
>taken shelter in a grove of trees, where banners and signs
>demanded that U.S. troops leave Korea. Several young people
>from nearby towns captured the speak-out on videotape.
>
>An older man stepped forward. "Thank you for coming and
>sharing with us our deep unresolved pain and grief. Help us
>reveal the truth so this will never happen again."
>
>A group of women in flowered dresses sat on the ground at
>the front of the group. They were all in their sixties and
>seventies, less than five feet tall and clearly life-long
>friends. A leader of the Korean Confederation of Trade
>Unions, who had been helping the villagers with the
>investigation, pointed out their injuries. Several women
>pulled up their skirts, unembarrassed, to reveal the scars
>of deep puncture wounds on their buttocks and thighs.
>
>Next to them sat Hwang Gae-Il. Tears from his useless left
>eye steadily trickled down over fearsome scars across his
>cheek.
>
>Cho Yung U, the chair of the Kyungsang Province
>Investigating Committee, said that a long line of people
>several miles long had been evacuating the area in August
>1950 when the attacks occurred. U.S. troops were stationed
>up on the hills and knew the people were civilians.
>
>On Aug. 21, a surveillance flight was followed by machine
>gunning of the refugees. Some 170 people died at that time.
>"At first people thought it was just an accident," said
>Cho. "But they soon learned it had been systematic. We
>later
>
>
> found out that the commander of the 25th Division, Gen.
>William B. Dean, had said, `Consider these civilians
>enemies.'"
>
>Dean, by the way, also commanded U.S. troops at No Gun-ri,
>where civilian refugees were gunned down at the end of July
>1950. The story of these U.S. atrocities was broken by the
>Associated Press on Sept. 29, 1999, and earned its authors
>a Pulitzer Prize. Despite efforts by U.S. News & World
>Report to discredit the story, the Pulitzer committee has
>reaffirmed its basic accuracy.
>
>Ahn Sang Bo was 19 years old and leader of the village
>youth committee at the time of the bombings at Chang Ji-ri.
>He is the most senior of today's survivors. Ahn remembers
>up to a dozen planes dropping napalm as well as explosives
>on concentrations of people. "Why would they bomb us? I
>witnessed one whole family get burned. I had thought the
>U.S. were peace lovers. I learned they were killers. After
>36 years of Japanese colonial rule, I had thought we'd be
>free."
>
>Ahn stiffened. "The Americans are our worst enemies. They
>divided our land at the 38th parallel, making Koreans kill
>each other."
>
>The horrors of Chang Ji-ri village kept emerging, one by
>one. People told how a woman carrying a baby had had her
>head blown off. The baby suckled at her breast for three
>days before it died. When those who had fled the village
>returned, they found wild animals eating the dead bodies.
>People told of the mass raping of women and young girls--
>often in front of their husbands.
>
>After 50 years of silence, the ghastly tales tumbled from
>their mouths, pushed out on gasps and moans.
>
>JAE SIL: `ATTACKED FROM AIR, SEA AND GROUND'
>
>The rain got heavier and the visitors left, hoping to
>reach the manor house in Jae Sil before dusk. In a
>schoolyard, village leader Lee Man-Soon met their bus,
>saying it was too big to navigate the little lane to the
>Lee family house. While the visitors waited for the rain to
>lift so they could make the 10-minute walk, Lee Man-Soon
>explained that this town had been a very close-knit
>community. Some 80 percent of the 173 households were from
>one family--the Lees.
>
>"During the war, 99 percent of the village was burned.
>Most of the people took refuge at the estate house of the
>Lee family. No south Koreans were stationed in this region,
>only U.S. troops.
>
>"I was among the 170 people taking refuge at the Lee
>compound on Aug. 11, 1950. We were attacked from the air
>and the ground. Eight were killed instantly.
>
>"Our village is 4 kilometers from the sea. So we were also
>shelled by U.S. warships.
>
>"There were no north Koreans or Chinese in our village.
>But there had been a large confrontation 5 kilometers away
>in which there were 2,300 U.S. casualties.
>
>"I lost five members of my family, including my mother and
>aunt," said Lee. "Look here, I'm holding a bullet that I
>took from my leg."
>
>The visitors took off their shoes and stepped up into the
>estate house, admiring its beautiful old timbers. "You see
>where the left side looks newer? That's because the roof
>there was completely blown away," Lee said.
>
>At this point, a rather chubby old man--unusual in south
>Korea--wearing a hearing aid pushed to the front. He
>bragged that his uncle had had the biggest house in the
>village. "I lived in Japan during the war," he said, "but I
>know that the ones to blame here were north Korea and
>China." The others shook their heads. Several called out,
>"You weren't even here. You don't know what happened." He
>seemed not to hear them. They walked away muttering as the
>old fellow kept talking to no one in particular.
>
>INVESTIGATIONS COMMITTEE TELLS OF REPRESSION
>
>In the city of Taegu the night before, the Investigations
>Committee for Kyungsang Province had had dinner ready for
>the foreign guests. Knowing they were tired after a long
>bus ride from Seoul, the hosts had kept their remarks
>brief, even though they had much they wanted to say.
>
>Song Ho Jun, president of the committee, told the group:
>"We deplore that this investigation in itself violates the
>South Korean National Security Law. There's been oppression
>from the government for the past 50 years. We seek support
>from the international community."
>
>Yoo Yoon Ham, president of the Victims' Families Committee
>founded this March, said simply: "We were accused of being
>communist sympathizers so we couldn't speak out."
>
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