The village festival, Daechuri, Pyeongtaek, three years after eviction 평택 대추리 마을 잔치, 이주 3년 후

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* Related blog

Monday, October 25, 2010
Poster Fwd: 2010 Daechuri Village Festival, Pyeongtaek, Oct. 30,
2010 년 10월 30일, 대추리 마을 잔치 포스터
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* To see more photos from the event, click HERE (Solidarity for Peace And Reunification of Korea) and HERE (Choi, Hyung-Rak, Pressian)New!

평통사 사이트(클릭)와 프레시안 사이트(클릭)에서 더 많은 사진과 기사를 보세요. New!
* A brief text and video links can be seen under the photos
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Click the images for larger views
이미지를 클릭하시면 확대됩니다.

Book cover: 'Ah, Daechuri: Record of the Daechuri villagers’ struggle against the [US base] relocation to and expansion of the Pyeontaek US base.’

Village festival, 'Daechuri, a peace village'

The village, Daechuri, where innocent farmers had made living with farming now became to be part of the US war base. Despite its sad history, the villagers will continue their lives in their new hometown. Even though their lands were robbed of, their will to keep peace will never disappear.

Lit the lanterns! Raise the lanterns! Let us free from our sadness, grudge and fury!
We are alive here! We will never give up our love of peace! We won!

* Image source: Pyeongtaek on Wikipedia

* Map Image source: Click HERE. For original SPARK source, click HERE.
South Gyeonggi-do branch, Solidarity for Peace And Reunification of Korea
/ English title added

* Image source: Click HERE. For original SPARK source, click HERE.
We denounce the construction plan for the nuclear war protection facility in the Pyeongtaek US base by the KORCOM (English title added).

In the map, the right area where a runway construction is planned was
the old Daechuri village.
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When the villagers ended the struggle after more than 935 days candle light vigil against the expansion of the Camp Humphreys, U. S. base, Pyeongtaek, in April 2007, without the achievement of their will, the last remaining villagers of about 40 households, decided to move together to a new village so that their community could be continued even after the struggle. The villagers had witnessed how the villagers became to be torn apart during the struggle by government manipulation of the villagers - that is common to all the base struggles- and suffered by it.

Their decision was reflected in the agreement with the then government, along with their another proposal that they wanted to name the new village as Daechuri, the same name of their lost hometown by eviction.

And finally three years after, the villagers could hold a village festival on Oct. 30, with their new town being renamed as Daechuri, and with a book published upon the festival. The book was called as ‘Ah, Daechuri: Record of the Daechuri villagers’ struggle against the [US base] relocation to and expansion of the Pyeontaek US base.’

The 362 page thick book began with the publication statement by Shin Jong-Won, the current village chief.

He says in the book.

‘The people in Daechuri struggled from 2003 to 2007. At first, we were simply infuriated by the fact that we became to be robbed of our fertile paddy fields that our parents and brothers had cultivated. How could [the government] give our lands for the war base of the United States military without any discussion with the villagers? During the process of the struggle, we became to know that the fate we were bearing was not only our town’s. As we became to know that the peace in the Korean peninsula depended on this struggle, we realized that we became to be in the struggle that we could not give up any more.

Nevertheless, we were robbed of our hometown. We gave it away, as a war base to the United Stats. The government established the military facility protection area even drawing upon the police and military and did not allow us farming. Even though we tried farming as a way to resist against the expansion and relocation of the US military, those pushed us with a gun and a sword, during our peaceful struggles. We lost our struggle in front of it. We left the village burying our memory in that lands, then, how the peace in our country becomes? I would like to ask such irresponsible government personnel. I would like to ask the government officials and politicians who speak for the interests of the United States, who are more like the Americans than real Americans. What have you accomplished after you drove us out?

We wanted to remain, as a record, of [our] stories of how we fought. We decided to bind a book with such deep feeling that we should let someone should know about the essence of the monster and about the suffering the villagers had to counter against it. Did we want more compensation? [Was our struggle] due to Anti-US powers, behind us? We hope this book delivers even a part of truth, even though small. We would like to spread the stories of the villagers who only wanted to make a farming in Daechuri and to live and die in that lands.’
(translated)
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* Related blogs

Thursday, October 28, 2010
Text Fwd: PACOM Headlines: Pacific Integration key to Army strategy
[아태 사령부] 군사 전략에서 태평양 통합의 열쇠

Friday, August 27, 2010 2010년 8월 26일
Text Fwd: US to redeploy troops in Korea from 2017
미국, 한국에서 2017년 부터 군대 재배치

The Korean Anti-Base Peace Movement, Focused on Pyeongtaek
by Kang Sang-Won (Director, Pyeongtaek Peace Center)
April 17, 2009
위의 글의 국문은 여기서 볼 수 있읍니다.
평택에 촛점을 맞춘 한국의 반기지 평화 운동
강상원, 평택 평화 센터
2009년 4월 17일

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* Pyeongteak videos can be seen here 평택 관련 비디오는 이 사이트들에서 볼 수 있읍니다.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010
[Video Fwd] Four SPARK Videos on Mugeon-ri, Jeju, Pyeongteak, and Peace Treaty during the NPT
[평화와 통일을 여는 사람들] 무건리, 제주, 평택, 평화 조약에 관한 비디오들

Sunday, September 12, 2010
The issue of the problematic construction of the 2nd runway in the Osan U. S. AFB, Pyeongtaek is growing (* scroll down to see the English, Japanese sub-titled videos)
[평택 평화 센터] 평택 송탄 공군 기지, 제2 활주로 건설의 문제점 (* 영. 일 자막 비디오는 마우스를 내려가면 보입니다)

Saturday, December 27, 2008
Pyeongtaek Since April 2007 (*scroll down to see the video links)
2007년 4월 이후의 평택 (* 영, 국문 비디오 링크들은 아래를 내려가시길)