desultude

Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Location: Dangling my toes in the Persian Gulf
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 2:56 am Post subject: S. Korean Farmers Eviction Raises Concerns |
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Is this one of those U.S.-Korea joint military operations?
Quote: |
By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 18, 4:56 PM ET
SEOUL, South Korea - Hundreds of elderly farmers face forcible eviction from their land to allow the expansion of a U.S. military base near Seoul, according to the human rights group Amnesty International.
Some of the farmers; mainly in their 60s and 70s; suffered bloodied noses and several human rights activists were detained during clashes with riot police earlier this month, the London-based group said in a statement posted on its Web site Friday.
Police had come to evict the farmers from their homes in Daechuri village in Pyongtaek, 50 miles south of Seoul, it said.
"I will stay and I will die here if (the government) forcibly evicts us," Kim Ji-tae, the village chief, told The Associated Press during a candlelight vigil in a school in their village.
Of 210 families, Kim said 20 families had already left their land and some 80 families would eventually leave the village but the remaining families will stay on their land.
"Most of these villagers are very old and it is distressing to hear of force being used against them," Rajiv Narayan, East Asia researcher at Amnesty International, said in the statement. |
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060318/ap_on_re_as/skorea_eviction |
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