Korea’s rapid economic growth demands enormous amounts of electricity, and it’s that demand that has met the fierce resistance of the farmers of Miryang, a small city 47 kilometers northwest of Busan. To these mostly elderly farmers, the most visible effect of “development” is not cell phones, flatscreen TVs, or air-conditioning. It is the high-voltage transmission towers that have sprouted along the ridges of their mountain valley.
Since October protests against the 765kV Power transmission tower’s have taken place. On Jan 25th Close to three thousand people, including labor and environmental activists from cities throughout South Korea, converged on the small city of Miryang to protest the building of high-voltage power lines connected to a nuclear power plant.
Roads have been cut through their orchards, and trails dug out from the mountainsides, so that workers from the state utility, KEPCO, can reach the tower sites. The family burial sites of ancestors sit next to the crudely cut paths, in the shadow of towers. While some farmers have accepted buyouts from the state, many others have resisted, and this resistance has been met with force. The small farming villages of Miryang have come to resemble a police state.
Mr. Yoo Han-Sook, (71) a villager who attempted to commit a suicide by taking a poison and who was hospitalised, died on December 6. Prior to his death when he became conscious, he had shared with his family members and rights activists his frustration of the power transmission tower that would have adverse effects on villagers, including himself.
The incense alter of late Yoo Han-Sook who took poison and passed away last December asking to stop construction of Power Transmission Tower, was originally located at the entrance of the athletic park across Yeongnamnu Pavilion, but the local Merchants Association called for the removal.
A small group including the family of the deceased and villagers went to City Hall to ask for a talk with the mayor of Miryang City to move the incense alter of late Mr Yoo Han-Sook from nearby City Hall to the another place. They sat with necks chained together on a mat together out front.
Police surrounded the villagers to take away it. Police took away the mat that villagers sat on it by pushing and pulling them off of it. They picked up and took away the small mat and disposable raincoat around them. Villagers and related people who have lost everything cried aloud embracing together.
Then an older woman Lee Keum-Ja lost it and started appealing, “I am struck dumb with amazement. What kind of nonsense is that? What’s the reason why they were doing such a thing, in spite of the fact that mat is not a deadly weapon.”
The protest started on Jan. 27 at noon and protesters called the National Human Rights Commission of Korea at 2:30 pm to explain that they can’t go to the restroom because Police had surrounded and isolated them. Police had told protesters that you can go to the restroom, but once you go to the restroom, you can’t come back to the same place again because the police blocked the people as we see in the photos. One man even use a PET bottle for his urine in the meantime.
Protesters were allowed to go to the restroom from Jan. 27 at 5pm after officials from the National Human Rights Commission of Korea complained to the police.
The protest lasted from Jan 27 at noon to Jan 28 at 8:30 pm. They were surrounded by police all night until they finish their protest.
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