From: Barry Stoller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [pttp] S Korea demo against WTO AP. 21 November 2001. S. Korea Farmers, Police Clash. SEOUL -- Farmers opposing the World Trade Organization's free trade talks clashed with riot police Wednesday to protest a further opening of South Korea's rice market. About 10,000 farmers tried to march on a government complex in Kwachon, south of Seoul, pushing a truck bedecked with anti-government slogans. Riot police armed with batons and plastic shields blocked the protesters. Farmers hurled eggs, dirt and garbage at the police. They tied ropes to the fence of the government complex and pulled down a 170-feet section before police beat them back. At least 10 police officers and farmers were injured, none of them seriously, said state-run KBS-TV. Police could not confirm the report. "Guarantee our livelihood!" thousands of farmers chanted during the protest. Some tried in vain to overturn a police bus. They burned white banners and effigies with signs reading "WTO" or "Open-door Agriculture Policy." South Korean farmers accuse the Untied States of threatening their livelihood by forcing the country to open its markets further to cheap imported rice. They had benefited from a closed market and government subsidies until South Korea ended its decades-old ban on rice imports in 1994 and agreed to increase imports to 4 percent of all domestic rice consumption by 2004. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews with continuing coverage of WWIII _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
