------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Dec. 12, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
AFTER U.S. MILITARY COURT ACQUITS SOLDIERS: SOUTH KOREA IS BOILING OVER CRIMES OF OCCUPATION By Deirdre Griswold New York "Boiling" was the word that kept coming up as a delegation from South Korea described the mood in their country to an overflow meeting at the International Action Center here on Dec. 3. The group had come halfway around the world to let the U.S. government know that the Korean people will not tolerate the extreme insult and injustice dealt to them on Nov. 22, when a U.S. military court acquitted two U.S. soldiers of all charges in the deaths of two Korean schoolgirls crushed by a tank on June 13. Shin Hyo-Soon and Shim Mi-Sun had been walking on the side of a road on their way to a birthday party when the 50-ton tank came barreling through. Witnesses in a videotape brought by the delegation said the tank was far exceeding the speed limit. But the U.S. court wouldn't find the driver or the soldier accompanying him guilty even of negligent homicide. This incident seems to have been the last straw for millions of South Koreans, whose country has been occupied by the U.S. military for over 50 years. Thousands have been joining increasingly militant demonstrations at U.S. military bases, and 1.3 million have signed petitions demanding that the U.S. 1) turn over jurisdiction in the case to a Korean court for the retrial of the two soldiers; 2) revise the unfair Status of Forces Agreement that governs U.S. military forces in south Korea; 3) close down Camp Howze, the base where the incident took place, and 4) withdraw all 37,000 U.S. troops from South Korea. The group plans to deliver the 1.3 million petitions directly to the White House, as the U.S. Embassy in Seoul arrogantly refused to accept them. It will also picket the White House, carrying Korean flags on which hundreds of people have written the above demands in their own blood. STRUGGLE FOR 'SOVEREIGNTY AND SELF-DETERMINATION' "At first most Koreans were silent, expecting the U.S. to take the appropriate measures," the Rev. Hong Kun-Soo told the IAC meeting. "But then came the acquittals." Another delegation member, the Rev. Han Sang- Ryul, said that South Korea is now "boiling over the struggle for sovereignty and self-determination." He and other Korean speakers linked the arrogance of the U.S. military in their country to the Pentagon's war plans in the Middle East. "U.S. military dominance and neo-liberalism are used to subjugate and dominate around the world," said Rev. Han. A solidarity statement from the New York Committee for Shin Hyo-Soon and Shim Mi-Sun referred to the present struggle--in which for the first time demonstrators have broken through chain-link fences and got onto U.S. bases, where they have fought with sticks, stones and Molotov cocktails--as a "new phase of the movement against U.S. occupation." Kim Jong Il of the Pan-Korean Committee on the Two Girls Killed by a U.S. Armored Vehicle brought a display of photographs documenting other U.S. crimes. U.S. soldiers have beaten many Korean women to death in the most sadistic and brutal circumstances. A Korean legislator who came to the defense of a number of young women students being harassed by GIs because they were carrying signs protesting the killing of Shin and Shim was himself beaten around the head and face. This tremendous upsurge in the movement against the U.S. military occupation comes South Korea comes when the U.S. imperialists are intensifying their propaganda against North Korea. The latest James Bond movie, for example, is an unabashed propaganda piece depicting Koreans as brutal torturers. It will only further infuriate the aroused people in South Korea, who know only too well who the real torturers are. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
