It is a short record of the two hours illegal detention of the bereaved Yongsan families by the South Korean police, in front of the city hall square, Seoul, South Korea on Oct. 19, 2009.
The Yongsan families were doing the publicity activities for their claim and the police tried to criminalize them by claiming that they stole the police radio. It of course turned out that the families were nothing to do with the stolen radio. Still, the police were trying to detain them with no persuasive reason. It was obvious that the South Korean government and police were really afraid that the truth of the Yongsan tragedy spread to the wide public and overseas.
But there were international people who happened to come to Korea at the events for the World March for Peace and Nonviolence.
Bruce Gagnon, Secretary of the Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space wrote on it in his blog.
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2009/10/circling-for-peac...Monday, October 19, 2009
CIRCLING FOR PEACE
For more info on the issues of the Yongsan tragedy and struggle, Please go to the below.
__Yongsan and the People Who Cannot Leave
On January 20th, [2009], five people [in the Yongsan District, Seoul] were caught in fire. Their corpses stayed in the freezers while one of the hottest summers went by. The bereaved wanted nothing but an apology from those responsible along with a means to carry on with their lives since their previous stores were demolished due to the redevelopment cause. The weather is turning cold without a single funeral held during the nine months since the tragedy.
The Korean government is more than refusing to hear from anyone related to Yongsan. No demonstration has been given permit by neither the Seoul City nor the Yongsan District and were violently quelled by the police if taken place. Even one-person demonstrations or religious gatherings were suppressed, with the prosecutors and the police denying any responsibility regarding the deaths. They are pursuing a partial trial where only the families and friends of the bereaved are tried, and are refusing to disclose their information, ignoring the judges orders.
http://mbout.jinbo.net/webbs/view.php?board=mbout_19&...* Otherwise, on Oct. 28, the judges sentenced the 9 restrained Yongsan evictees who were arrested on the day of January accident as guilty at their first trial, giving them heavy sentences from 2 to 6 years in jail (Two of those with probation), raising much fury from the Yongsan evictees and activists. The Yongsan coalition has been organizing the desperate struggles including the rolling hunger strike against the injustice by the Lee Myung Bak government and the court, the puppet of the Lee government. The police have even arrested the leaders of the hunger strikes since then.
__A documentary film on Yongsan Massacre, People Who Cannot Leave which was the opening film in the 13th Seoul Human Rights Film Festival.
http://www.archive.org/details/PeopleWhoCannotLeave__For the solidarity action from Japan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wul69r5TZR8&feature=re...
(less info)
