Siege and Seizure in Korea
by Cindy Sheehan
Traveling around the world these past months has given me an
education about
American history that majoring in the subject at UCLA never did. I have
witnessed first hand what US imperialism and militarism can do to
countries
and societies. I sat with indigenous Hawaiian tribal leaders who shared
their tragic stories of how US colonialism and militarism ruined their
fishing waters and turned their lands into super-fund sites. I stood in
solidarity with Irish peace activists who want the US military off of
their
soil and US transport and rendition planes to stop using Shannon
Airport to
land to refuel. These are just a few stories, everywhere I go, the local
populations have stories of greed, crime, corruption, pollution,
etc., that
all go hand in glove wherever the US military is present. Not to
mention the
“hot” war zones where hundreds of civilians are murdered, maimed, or
displaced on a daily basis.
This rampant, arrogant, and care-less US militarism has nowhere been
more
evident than here in South Korea, especially in the village of Daechuri,
near Pyong-taek City. The loathing for George Bush, America, Americans,
irresponsible capitalism, corporatism, imperialism and militarism is a
planetary phenomenon, but above what the US is doing to the wretched
countries of Iraq and Afghanistan, I have never been more ashamed of
the US
government than when I visited the village of Daechuri with 17 other
American peace and social justice activists and a campesino from
Colombia.
Miles before our bus reached the village on the evening of November
20th, we
were stopped by approximately 200 South Korean riot-police who were
decked
out in their full riot regalia with bullet proof shields. We were
traveling
with Father Moon, an elderly Buddhist priest who has been an advocate
for
the villagers for a few years now. Father Moon got out of the bus and
negotiated with the police captain for what seemed hours in the near
freezing cold, but was only about 20 minutes. Finally, in what the
villagers
said was an unprecedented move, they allowed us entry into the village
(after we passed another heavily guarded checkpoint). Villagers must
present
ID to get into their own village and visitors are rarely allowed to
go in.
Why? Because the village of Daechuri is under-siege in a criminal
collaboration between the governments of South Korea and the United
States
of America and the governments don’t want the world to see what their
crimes
are doing to yet more innocent civilians.
The village of Daechuri has the unmitigated gall to be located next
to a US
military base, Camp Humphreys, which is slated for an eleven-billion
dollar
expansion that would include a golf course for the use of soldiers
stationed
there. The only problem is (not for the governments) that the village of
Daechuri and their thousands of acres of farmland, mostly rice
paddies, are
in the way of the juggernaut of US military expansion. The people of
Daechuri have been cut-off from their farmlands by razor wire, guard
towers,
and armed foot patrols. Over two-thirds of the residents have the small
village, but that leaves about one-third of them there to stand
against the
mightiest Army and the greediest government in world history.
In the ‘80’s, Ronald Reagan famously said: “tear it down!” regarding the
Berlin Wall. There are many more walls on Earth that separate people
from
their farmlands, families, jobs and country that need to be torn
down, but
so-called civilized nations are building more walls and
fortifications to
contain and control free human movement and expression and curb
populations
that are just trying to live their lives in the traditional ways that
they
always have.
After our tour bus pulled up into the village, we were ushered into a
large
warehouse where the villagers were holding their 811th nightly
candlelight
vigil in protest of the US incursion. We joined their vigil and heard
their
stories. We heard stories of May 4th, when 20,000 Korean police
descended on
the village with heavy-hands and strong arm tactics that allowed the
barbed
wire fences to be constructed, thereby effectively cutting the
farmers off
from tens of thousands of dollars worth of un-harvested rice. We heard
stories from village elders who lived through Japanese imperialism and
occupation to the US Korean police action that killed 2.5 million
Koreans,
and are now having their lands and ways of life robbed of them by “Pax
Americana.” My heart broke for the people of Daechuri and was filled
with
disgust for whom the people of Korea call “Georgie Bushie” and whom I
call
“BushCo.”
Daechuri has become “ground zero” in the struggle against violent US
military extremism. We Americans can no longer sit idly by and turn
ignorant
blind eyes to what Georgie Bushie does around the globe. The people
of such
places as Daechuri, Shannon, Pearl Harbor and Iraq are our brothers and
sisters whom we are allowing our governments to oppress and suppress.
In all my life, I have never witnessed such courage, strength, and
determination. 150 people are standing firm and will not be moved no
matter
how many acres of their familial land is seized, how many of their
homes are
bulldozed or how close the razor wire gets to their homes. They have
decorated every fence with bright and cheery paintings of hope for the
future and they have erected monuments and memorials to what they have
already lost. Their determination and courage should be inspiration
to all
people around the world who also struggle for basic human rights.
This week, 18 Americans chose to give up their family holiday
celebrations
to come to Korea to stand with the people of Daechuri and the Korean
peace
movement.
On the day after Thanksgiving when most Americans were watching
football,
trampling each other in Wal-Mart in a frantic feeding frenzy to get the
newest cheap toys that are made off of the backs of virtual slave
labor all
over the world and/or spend most of the day circling parking lots at
malls
across the country to find a coveted parking space, four women from our
delegation, myself, Medea Benjamin (founder of Global Exchange and Code
Pink), my sister, Dede Miller (co-founder of GSFP) and my assistant,
Tiffany
Burns, walked across about 2 acres (up to our armpits) of ruined rice
crops
toward the “dmz” between the village and Camp Humphreys to hang a
sign that
said: “Arms not Farms” on the nasty looking razor wire, despite the
warnings
of the Korean guards who were waving their arms and screaming
something at
us from behind two rows of the barbed wire.
The people of Daechuri have very little to be Thankful for. Our
soldiers in
the field and innocent people in Bush-torn countries have very little
to be
Thankful for. For me, on the third Thanksgiving I have had to bear since
Casey was killed, I can’t think of anything else that I would rather
have
done than help the people of Daechuri struggle against the very same
thing
that took Casey’s life. The villagers honored us with a “ Gold Star
Families
for Peace/Code Pink” Peace House that had been abandoned by an owner
that
took the cash settlement to leave. The villagers that remain don’t
want the
government’s blood money; they just want to keep their lands and homes.
The villagers who walk the narrow streets of Daechuri, bowed by
lifetimes of
carrying heavy burdens and children on their backs, are now carrying
burdens
placed there by American imperial gluttony, and I, as an American
want to
help them carry this burden, as many kind people all over the world have
tried to help me carry mine.
Not only is the expansion of Camp Humphreys hurting the people of
Daechuri,
but it will have the effect of further de-stabilizing a region
already on
pins and needles due parially to US intervention. You can bet your
turkey
left-overs that North Korea is watching these developments very
closely and
only the people of Korea and this region will pay for US
infiltrations in
South Korea. I know I don’t feel any safer by the raping and
pillaging of
Daechuri…in fact the expansion of Camp Humphreys will only do what
Georgie
Bushie is becoming infamous for: making America and the world less
safe and
secure. As an aside: I took a straw poll of about 400 South Koreans
and 100%
of them said that Georgie Bushie is far more frightening than Kim
Jong-Il
and they want the US out of Korea so they can put their divided
country back
together again.
With the complete destruction of Daechuri scheduled by the end of
this year,
our efforts may be too little, too late for the ill-fated visitors
who are
going through long-distance BushCo callousness, but we can prevent other
villages, towns, countries from experiencing the same fate with the
exposure
of what is happening here. We are in this together. Making the
sacrifices of
the villagers count for justice is as important as making US troop
and the
Iraqi civilian’s sacrifices count for peace. Peace and justice are two
values that are intertwined and inter-connected and they are the
responsibility of us all.
What can we do stateside to help these people? We can lobby our
congressional reps to hold hearings into the tragedy of Daechuri. We can
donate money to help the villagers get fuel for heating their homes
during
the bitter Korean winter and to obtain food, since they can’t access
their
fields for harvest. We can turn off our TVs and educate ourselves on US,
corporatism, imperialism and militarism by reading such books as:
"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins, or "Hegemony or
Survival" by Noam Chomsky. We can do with less, especially in the
season of
over-the-top consumerism and waste. We can support organizations
financially
who work for peace and justice in lieu of a seemingly obscene over-
abundance
of presents or decorations.
I hope when Americans play golf on the golf course that will be
constructed
over the rice fields that sustained and gave sustenance to the
villagers for
generations, they stop and reflect for even a brief moment that an
entire
village was destroyed and hundreds of people were displaced for their
recreation.
Golf! A village was obliterated for golf. If this is the “American
way” then
we obviously need a new way, as speedily as possible.
Mail your tax deductible donation for the villagers of Daechuri to:
Gold Star Families for Peace
2010 Linden Ave
Venice, Ca. 90291
Earmark the donation for the villagers.
[Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Sheehan who was killed in
Bush's
war of terror on 04/04/04. She is the co-founder and president of
Gold Star
Families for Peace and the Camp Casey Peace Institute. She is the
author of
three books, the most recent is: "Peace Mom: A Mother's Journey Through
Heartache to Activism."]
