Text Fwd:[Translation] [JSPSGEP] Statement on the court decision on the annulment of the absolute preservation area in the Gangjeong village [Dec. 15]

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See also
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Text Fwd: [Translation] Pan-Island Committee statement on the court decision on Dec. 15
12월 15일 법원 판결과 관련된 범대위 성명

Saturday, November 6, 2010
[Jeju Resource][Translation]: Why the annulment on the cancellation of the absolute preservation area has to be done?
[제주] 왜 절대 보전 지역 해제를 취소해야 하는가?
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* image source: Gangjeong Village People’s Council café site
* The diagram (translated) represents the coral under the naval base planned area:“…about 2km seawall will be constructed in front of the sea of the Gangjeong village, and the whole planned area for the naval base will be 480,000m2 that is the combined size of the 67soccer playground. And about the half of it will be by reclamation…Specially, the Seoguipo Sea that includes the planned area for the naval base is designated with five different protection areas such as the UNESCO bio-protection area.” (See in detail)

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*아래는 참여환경연대의 12월 15일 성명서를 번역한 것입니다. (원문 클릭)
아래 참여 연대 논평 12.16. 2010(클릭) 또한 보시길.
[논평] 제주해군기지 예정부지 절대보전지역 해제여부를 다투는 소송에서 주민들이 원고가 될 수 없다는 법원의 기이한 해석
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Jeju Solidarity for Participatory Self-Government & Environmental Preservation
Statement on the court decision on the annulment of the absolute preservation area in the Gangjeong village [Dec. 15]
By the Jeju Solidarity for Participatory Self-Government & Environmental Preservation


No one can speak on the destruction of environment?
We are furious at the close-minded decision of the court!!

The position of our organization on the court decision of administrative lawsuit related to the cancellation of the absolute preservation areas [in Gangjeong village]

Today, there was the sentence trial, related to the cancellation of the absolute preservation area in the Gangjeong village. It was the trial that the Gangjeong villagers asked the judicature its judgment about legal justice matter of the cancellation process, regarding the issue that the Jeju Island authorities has cancelled the absolute preservation area for the purpose of the naval base construction in the Gangjeong village.

The unreasonable and unilateral drive process of the naval base by Kim Tae-Hwan Island government has reached its highest point in its cancellation of absolute preservation area. The Island assembly partly joined it by its own passing bill on it in the snatched way. Because of that, the last systematic tool on which the Gangjeong villagers could depend themselves was administrative lawsuit. However, the court ignored the Gangjeong villagers’ desperate hope.

Today, the court pointed out that the Gangjeong villagers who had filed the lawsuit were not properly qualified as the plaintiff, without making judgment on the cancellation process of the absolute preservation area. Its reason was that the Gangjeong villagers had not gotten direct affect by the cancellation of the absolute preservation area.

The logic of the judicature is that the cancellation of the absolute preservation area and naval base are separate; and the plaintiffs (*the Gangjeoing villagers) are improperly qualified to raise the issue because the cancellation of the absolute preservation area is not directly harming to the Gangjeong villagers, soon. It is a court decision that can be never understood by the common sense of ordinary citizens. If not naval base, what is the reason of cancellation of the absolute preservation area? And we cannot understand on what basis the court is talking in the part that says [the cancellation of absolute preservation area] is not directly harming the Gangjeong villagers, in their sentence? For what was the Gangjeong villagers’ life and death struggle for more than three years? They were robbed of their ground for life by the [planned] naval base that they don’t agree with. It only brings suspicion whether the court understands the Gangjeong village’s situation at minimum that the court says the Gangjeong villagers have not gotten direct harm even though it is the issue that the Gangjeong villagers’ survival rights are depending on.

In Gangjeong, the sea of about 80,000 pyeong (* about more than 250,000square meters) would be reclaimed for setting up naval base. The reclaimed area is only short distance from the biosphere preservation areas; there are the soft coral habitats that are rare not to mention in our country but in the international; and there inhibit rare animals such as the red-feet crabs. It is disaster that the naval base enters in such area. Despite that, the court is saying that it is not directly related to the Gangjeong villagers. If then, how the environmental destruction by the oppression of state power can be prevented on earth? According to the logic of the court sentence, nobody can raise the lawsuit regarding environmental destruction. According to its logic, it means the Island people can never respond in the future even though an Island governor cancels all the absolute preservation areas of the Jeju Island with his/her omnipotent authorities while all the coasts of the Jeju Island have been designated as the absolute preservation areas.

Explaining the reason of its own sentence, the court said the matter is not that to be settled by law but by the talks between the Jeju Island and Island people. Such efforts have been repeatedly frustrated by the unilateral and oppressive drive by the Island government and navy. While the judicature decision was the last choice the Island people have chosen, facing the tyranny of state power, the judicature has avoided the Island people’s desperate wishes as if it was not its own business.

The judicature should not abandon its role to protect the citizens’ rights from the tyranny of state power. It should not forget that it is one of the reasons of its existence. Demanding the sincere self-examination by the judicature on the issue, we strongly urge it would not repeat its improper court decision

Dec. 15, 2010

Jeju Solidarity for Participatory Self-Government & Environmental Preservation
Co-representatives, Dae Hyo, Heo Jin=Young and Choi Hyun

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