[Jeju Update][May 7] Villagers' fundrasing event

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See also
Organizing Notes
Saturday, May 07, 2011
STANDING OUTSIDE OF BATH IRON WORKS
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* Added photos and video come also from the links of the Gangjeong village people's website and the Life and Peace Fellowship. For more photos and videos, see the links

villagers’ fundraising event (May 7, 2011)

http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/49kU/286
http://www.lifepeace.org/xe/129354#0
http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/GeUn/76 (Video)
http://cafe.daum.net/peacekj/GeUn/75 (Video)

Solidarity message (May 7, 2011)
http://www.lifepeace.org/xe/129344#0

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On May 7, there was a Gangjeong villagers’ fundraising event all day in the village community hall. Hundreds of people who have been supporting the villagers’ struggle against the Jeju naval base visited the village and many of them looked around the construction site from the naval field office to the vicinity of the Joongduk coast where people are doing daily vigil everyday in the sit-in tents.



* Image source: http://www.lifepeace.org/xe/129354#0





The villagers have been struggling against base construction for four years and recently, Yang Yoon-Mo, movie critic has been jailed for his direct action against it. He has been in fast since his arrest on April 6 and meets 33rd fast day as of May 8, 2011 which is also Parents’ Day in Korea.






* Picture banners on villagers' struggle hung on the day

Coincidently there was people’s protest against christening of another Aegis Destroyer in the Maine, United States. The Gangjeong mayor and chairman of the villagers’ committee against the Jeju naval base had sent the solidarity message to them. For more, click HERE (Bruce Gagnon’s blog) and HERE.

Prominent figures such as representatives of the opposition parties in the Jeju Island visited the sites. The Jeju branch of the Democratic Labor Party has even had the ceremony for the launch of the its own group who would do fight against construction along with the existing people in the current protest sites.



Hyun Ae-Ja, Chairwoman of the Jeju branch, Democratic Labor Party and former National Assembly woman

The people who have been keeping the sit-in sites everyday kept the vigil on the day, too.

Near the rocky coast, a woman discovered two crabs under the rocks and inside fresh spring water between them. There are three kinds of crabs living in the village and one species of Sesarma intermedium that is called as the ‘Boolgeunbalmalttongge’(translated as ‘red feet crab’) is the 2nd class endangered species (defined by the Ministry of Environment, ROK).



* image source: Media Jeju

The navy has planned to relocate all the Sesarma intermedium living across from the vicinity of the naval field office to the Yakcheon Buddhist temple which is about 20 minutes car distance from the Gangjeong village by the end of April, attempting to hide the very fact that the current construction site is the habitat of that endangered species. People here have expelled the navy and navy-affiliated company members twice in April but watching the navy’s move.

It has been important for people to prove that the red-feet crabs are still inhibiting in the construction site, critically endangered by construction, so the discovery of the crabs was getting attention even though it is not known yet whether it is the very red feet crabs or not.

For more on the endangered species of the Gangjeong village and the need to preserve its environment, see HERE and HERE(Media Jeju, 미디아 제주)











Still, part of construction went on even on Saturday... See these monstrous concrete structures after a day's work end to be dropped into the sea to destroy all the creatures including the UNESCO designated soft corals. For more on these structures, click HERE.









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Videos on the peoples’ fundraising event against the Jeju naval base construction on May 7, 2011.

The villagers have been suffering for long time during the struggle, including the navy’s dividing strategy among them. On May 7, the villagers enjoyed the community day which has been rare in recent days so precious for them.