[Jeju Update] [May 16] Yang’s testament despite people’s tears/ Island governor requested the navy for temporal construction stop among criticism

* Image source: Boreum Doragi
Yang Yoon-Mo, movie critic, on Oct. 14, 2010
__________________________________________
More photos come later
__________________________________________

[Jeju Update] [May 16]: Yang Yoon-Mo’s testament despite people’s tears/ Island governor requested the navy for temporal construction stop among criticism

Despite many people’s tearing appeal, including that of Shin Ku Bum, the former Island governor, to stop his fast, Yang Yoon-Mo, movie critic, who has been on his 42nd prison fast day as of May 17, 2011, since his arrest on April 6, told his testament to the visitors on May 16.


Yang Yoon-Mo, on his 29th day prison fast on May 4, 2011

He thanked all the people including the movie people and lawyer Shin Yong-In, who have wholeheartedly supported him. According to an activist who left a record on his testament and remarks, he who appeared in wheelchair said his blood sugar has been down to even 41 and has been fluctuating 41, 51 to 80. His pulse is gradually coming down, as well

But he said he would not get even linger that he has been getting since his hospital cure at the end of March, from the day when his fast hits over 50th day. He said the prison officers are trying to put the nutrition pills in linger but he has been preventing it.

He said even though the prison officers have been trying to persuade him to stop fast, he would not submit to it until, Woo Keun-Min,. the Island governor, withdraws the Jeju naval base plan and protect peace in the Gangjeong village. It is to emphasize that his heart has never been changed, he said. He finally said he would not regret his decision and his death would be the fertilizer for the struggle.


* Photo by Cho Sung-Bong
http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/GdUL/17

Yang Yoon-Mo was violently and brutaly arrested by the Seogwipo police station policemen on April 6 when he prevented a construction truck laying his body underneath it.

The below is a short summary translation of his remarks on May 16, from an activist’s record:

Since I am a son of society, son of history and son of national history, I have seldom attached myself to my own family.

I have struggled for social justice, film society’s democracy and against the Free Trade Agreement, and that is why I could carry out the absolute opposition movement against the naval base for the Gangjeong village, Jeju Island.

I will protect the Gangjeong Sea until I die and protect it even after it.
Please do my funeral in the simplest way.

And please shed my bone powders after cremation everywhere of the Joongduk coast, carried by Mr. Kim Jong-Hwan and Go Young-Jin, the two Gangjeong villagers.

The Creative Korea Party of which Shin Ku Bum, the former Island governor and who has done solidarity fast along with Yang Yoon-Mo from April 18 to 26, has also made a statement that criticized the Grand National party, the ruling party to ignore Yang’s critical life and to be silent in the navy’s enforcement of construction. It said it is contradictory for the Grand National party to ignore Yang’s fast and navy’s forceful construction while promoting the special law on the Jeju 4.3 of which the content is about the designation of 4.3 as a national memorial day.

The 4.3 means the incident of the indiscriminate massacre of the Jeju island people who have uprisen against the establishment of the separate South Korean government backed by the United States military regime in 1948, three years after Korea’s liberation from the Japanese imperialism in 1945 and two years before of the Korean War in 1950.

The Jeju Island people have said that the current situation of the struggle against the naval base is becoming the 2nd 4.3. Yang Yoon-Mo has once told that his own mother’s side uncle was one of the first victims of that massacre. He might have kept that historical fact in his deep heart. A photographer who has observed Yang for more than three years have said Yang might have done today’s decision two years ago.

Yang’s third trial would be on May 20, his 45th prison day.

While the construction is being continued everyday with monstrous concrete structures that would be dropped into the sea to kill the UNESCO-protection-designated soft corals, Woo Keun-Min, the Jeju island governor is reported to have sent the request letter to the navy to temporarily stop construction by the end of June, accepting the request by the members of the National Assembly truth Investigation committee on the Jeju naval base who visited the village on May 12, 2011 and planned to make investigation result by the end of June, this year.




The navy has not responded to it yet but the Gangjeong villagers are not so happy. The villagers say the construction should be stopped at least until December this year for the Island government to make its own sense of it. December is when the Jeju Island government plans to announce its concrete plan on the special law to support the development of the vicinity areas near the naval base. The villagers say the law itself is betrayal since it is premised on the realization of the naval base they have fiercely opposed and they will not join in the discussion on it. The villagers have asked the Island government and navy to have sincere public discussion with them but the two have declined it.

May 18 is the day when the result of the villagers’ appealed lawsuit on the issue of absolute preservation area comes out with the court decision. For 4years’ hard struggle, the villagers who have realized how the government, national assembly and even court have abandoned them are ready to fight to the end to save their village and sea, along with Yang Yoon-Mo.

The coast in the Gangjeong village is one of 3% coastal absolute preservation areas and its sea is the only area in South Korea where the UNESCO-protected soft corals inhibit. It would be really disaster to have the naval base at that coast and sea near it filled up with concrete.

Otherwise, Kang Dong-Kyun, the mayor of the Gangjeong village and Go Won-Il sent the solidarity message to Okinawa. Another activist has recorded their message in the videos. Mayor Kang spoke in Japanese as he had lived in Japan for some years in the past.

Kanbare Okinawa!(by Kang Dong-Kyun, mayor of the Gangjeong village)



Kanbare Okinawa!(by Koh Kwon-il, chairman of the Gangjeong villagers’ committee against the Jeju naval base)




* Video link: http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/GeUn/85

And as the news on Yang Yoon-Mo’s fast has been being spread and the navy’s plan to remove all the people’s sit-in tents on May 27(planned) has been known, support of the struggle by people including students, artists and others nationwide is growing daily. The visual artists in the Jeju Island would have their press interview on May 28(planned) and would enter on their visual works supporting the struggle from June until the end of this year. See the leaflet HERE.

The Truth Investigation committee of the National Assembly, composed of five opposition parties have also made a public material to inform about the issues in the naval base. Click the link to down load it (Sorry, currently only Korean language version is available)

____________________________________

Below is a copy of a poem that has been put in Yang's vigil tent in the Joongduk coast, Gangjeong village. The title is "Sisterhood." It is a poem of love between the Joongduk Sea, the reclamation-planned naval base area, and a man who wants to save the Sea. The writer is a woman who calls the man as her brother-in-law and the sea, as her sister.

Sisterhood

She cries whenever it is deep night: The Joongduk Sea
Laying down Gangjeong in her belly who has been scratched and wounded
The Joongduk sea cries lulling and calming down it
Have you ever heard her crying sound
My sister, Joongduk Sea
With tears let inside her
Uh-Ho-Ii Oh-Ho-Ii
A man who has been captured by that tears
Has successfully recognized her being in a serious illness
Crouching his body in a small common bed
Being happy since he is with her
Hei Hei, my innocent brother-in-law
I
Offering a bowl of warm rice to them
Wanted to honor their love