The farmers of Daechuri and Doduri have long been resisting the Korean government's attempts to force
their eviction in order to make way for the expansion of the "Camp Humphreys" (K-6) US Military Base. After
years of legal battles, in December 2005, without public input or oversight, the Central Land Expropriation
Committee approved the MND's request for imminent domain acquisition of the farming villages. Everyone who
remained in their homes was guilty of trespassing on federal property.
On February 7th, 2006 the farmers marched to the local government office, declared that Daechuri and
Doduri were autonomous from Korea, renounced their citizenship and burned their residency cards. Currently,
Daechuri and Doduri receive no provincial funding and, on official records, have ceased to exist.
On March 6th, 2006, South Korean military riot police began direct attacks on the villages. Barricaded
inside the elementary school, rice farmers, elderly residents, and peace activists held out against attacks by
Korea's elite, military police force. With tractors as road blocks and human shields chained to the primary
school gates, they resisted wave after wave of attacks by hundreds of military riot police. Residents and peace
activists suffered beatings and arrests. Ultimately, under intense media scrutiny, the police pulled back.
On March 15, under orders of the MND, and with some 1,000 riot police standing by, two backhoes began
gutting the rice paddies on the far side of the fields. Thousands more riot police were posted around the
periphery of the village, while hundreds blocked street intersections and key access points to the area. The
villagers and their supporters immediately surrounded the machines, halting their progress. After some
negotiations, the backhoes begin moving again, but instead of continuing their excavation, they began to refill
the pits. As the military riot police moved into action, marching around that section of the field, cutting off all
access, the protesters inside their perimeter moved to occupy both backhoes. The police began to arrest
people and many protesters resisted and were beaten. After a tense standoff, at nightfall, the police left,
having been thwarted in their attempt to destroy the fields. Overall, 40 people were arrested. Many protesters
were injured with broken wrists and ankles. Amnesty International has since published a report condemning
the March 15th attack.
On April 7th, 2006 the MND returned to the villages with excavation equipment, concrete trucks, some 750
hired thugs and between 5,000 and 6,000 riot police. The main target of their attack was the irrigation system
for the rice paddies. While the plain-clothes hired "workers" attacked the protesters, fertile soil from the rice
fields was used to fill the water canals. Cement was also poured into some canals. The MND attacked four
areas simultaneously, and the villagers were thinly spread out over the vast farmland, however, protesters
managed to halt two backhoes. One bulldozer operator, who claimed that he was getting $450 to carry out the
destruction, was unable to continue after paint was thrown on his windshield. Close to nightfall, union
members from an auto manufacturing plant arrived and helped to fully halt the MND's progress. The riot police
and thugs left the village that night, feeling they had accomplished the destruction of the irrigation system.
Over the weekend, however, the villagers removed the dirt and concrete and repaired the irrigation system.
By the following Friday, water was again flowing to the paddies.
During the last days of April, the Ministry of National Defense offered to hold direct negotiations with the
Daechuri and Doduri farmers, however Defense Minister Yoon couldn't be bothered to attend. The MND also
demanded that the farmers consent to stop farming and vacate their land. No real negotiations were ever
actually intended on the part of the MND; the ministry merely wanted the opportunity to present itself as
reasonable to the Korean public.
On May 2nd, the ministry of defense declared the talks failed and announced its intent to resume its
forcible eviction attempts. This came on May 4th when a massive police and military attack managed to fence
off villagers' fields with razor wire. Police also destroyed a local elementary school that had been converted
into a museum and community center. Riot police officers, soldiers, and hired thugs beat and arrested
hundreds of villagers and supporters, including village leader Kim Ji-tae. Both Amnesty International and the
National Human Rights Commission of Korea (a government oversight body) denounced the arrests and the
violence against villagers.
Since the May attack, Korean soldiers and police have maintained a permanent occupation of most of the
fields, preventing village residents from planting and harvesting their crops. Police have established
permanent checkpoints on the roads to the villages. Residents must present their ID cards in order to enter,
and supporters are often turned back at the checkpoints.
During the most recent attack, on September 13, thousands of riot police invaded and occupied the
villages. Police demolition equipment managed to wipe out more than 60 empty houses, the “Human Rights
House,” and a few houses occupied by supporters. The vastly outnumbered villagers and supporters did
everything possible to stop the police attack. By scaling the roofs of houses slated for demolition, they
managed to stop the police from destroying many of the houses that the Ministry of Defense had threatened
to destroy.
Background on the expansion of Camp Humphreys:
The expansion of U.S. Army base Camp Humphreys (K-6) is part of the Global Posture Review, following the
agenda of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), and implemented by the Bush Administration to
consolidate its military hegemony over Northeast Asia. Under the relocation pact, the United States is required
to hand back in stages 34 military bases spread around the country by 2011. In their stead, it will build two
consolidated and modernized bases in Pyeongtaek and Osan, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, by 2008.
The Land Partnership Plan (LPP), the final agreement laying the framework for this massive base shuffle on
the Korean peninsula, was signed on March 29th, 2002 and was later ratified by the National Assembly. In
what was essentially a class action lawsuit, over 1,000 Pyeongtaek residents challenged the passage of the
LPP by the National Assembly as unconstitutional and the case went all the way to the Korean Supreme Court,
which, on February 22, 2006, declined to even consider that the LPP might be unconstitutional.
General Leon LaPorte, in his speech to the US Senate Appropriations Committee on April 29th, 2003,
regarding the US-ROK Land Partnership Plan, says that the LPP was "ratified by the National Assembly in
November 2002", and that it "has the full support of the Korean government." However, the LPP does not
have the support of the Korean people, and it was developed in "high-level consultations" between the US
Military and the Korean Ministry of National Defense.
The Korean people were never consulted in the scripting of the Land Partnership Plan, and the legitimate
grievences of the people most affected by the plan have been sidelined and ignored. However, the Korean
government is in a double bind, no matter what the people of the peninsula want, because the LPP itself
"provides for repercussions should one side fail to meet its commitments" (page 2, Executive Summary Land
Partnership Plan).
Opposition to the base has intensified with the news that an extravagant leisure complex for US soldiers will
be built on the farmer's land. According to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, those complex includes a
new fitness center "complete with a gym, indoor pool, running track, and four-story parking garage." But
more importantly, the base expansion is part of an aggressive transformation of US global military strategy
(www.antigizi.or.kr/english/nobasept.htm). The expansion of Camp Humphreys is part of the Global Posture
Review, implemented by the Bush Administration to consolidate its military hegemony over Northeast Asia and
contain the growing power of China.
Under the relocation pact, the United States is required to hand back in stages 34 military bases across
Korea by 2011. In their stead, it will build two consolidated and modernized bases in Pyeongtaek. US troop
levels in South Korea will decrease by 12,000 with the base shuffle. However, the US will transfer what is now
its main responsibility, defense from North Korea, to the South Korean military.. This will allow the US Forces
in Korea to develop their “strategic flexibility,” remaking themselves as a rapid deployment force capable of
intervening in conflicts in the entire Asian-Pacific region.
The new plan will cost $110 billion dollars. The cost of transfer, clean-up and military build-up is being
placed on the Korean government.
Continued resistance in Pyeongtaek and beyond
Many Koreans strongly oppose the US military presence in Korea, because of the resulting environmental
degradation, forced prostitution and human trafficking, and instances of rapes and sexual assaults by U.S.
soldiers. The resistance of Pyeongtaek farmers has attracted major support from Korean social movements.
The Pan-S. Korea Solution Committee Against U.S. Base Expansion in Pyeongtaek (KCPT) brings together
more than 140 member organizations including farmers, labor and other civil society organizations in South
Korea).Apart from the over 20 supporters who have come to Daechuri and Doduri to live, hundreds of
supporters have come to defend the towns during police attacks. More than 15,000 people came to Seoul for
a Pyeongtaek solidarity and anti-Free Trade Agreement rally on September 24. Solidarity demos were also
held in New York and Los Angeles. A number of US-based organizations have signed solidarity statements,
including Veterans for Peace, The Audre Lorde Project , and CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities. (www.
antigizi.or.kr/zboard/zboard.php?id=english_news).
The Pyeongtaek villagers have reaffirmed their resistance to the base at the nightly candlelight vigils, now
in their third year, held in town or in front of the jail where leader Kim Ji-Tae is held. As the Ministry of
Defense's threaten imminent eviction, villagers continue to work in their gardens, harvest the few rice fields
that haven't been fenced off with razor wire, and organize the defense of their land. Villagers hope that their
resistance on the ground, the continued support of Korean social movements, and solidarity from abroad will
be enough to stop the base expansion and save their land.