| kwwa |
2002-10-28 14:05:28, 조회 : 48 |
Urgent Appeal for the Release
Yi Chang-Bok and Hwang In-Sung
from Police Custody
1. On August 9, 1994, emergency arrest warrants were issued for Yi, Chang-Bok (Chairperson of the National Alliance for Democracy and Unification of Korea-NADUK) and Hwang, In-Sung (NADUK Executive Committee Chairperson); the two were officially charged on August 11.
1. The above two persons were charged with violation of the National Security Law on two counts. First, their activities at the NADUK leadership conference in March 1994, at which the repeal of the National Security Law was demanded and plans for reunification were discussed, were said to constitute "praise, agitation, and sympathizing" under the National Security Law. Secondly, they were charged for proposing that the government issue an official statement of condolences for the death of North Korea's former president Kim, Il-Sung.
Despite the fact that the National Security Law has been denounced for decades on the international stage as a violation of human rights, countless numbers of labor, social, and student activists have been arrested and imprisoned under this law. Just in the one year and five month period since the inauguration of Kim Young-Sam's presidency, 283 people have been arrested. Reading openly published books has been said to constitute discussions about reunification, and indiscriminate arrests have targetted activists working in the labor and democratization movements.
1. We believe the charges stated in the arrest warrants to have been mere formalities and the actual reason for these arrests to have been the intent to hinder the opening of the Pan-Korean National Conference to commemorate August 15, the date of national liberation from Japanese occupation. The Kim Young-Sam government itself has declared the need to dissipate tensions in the Korean peninsula and presented the North-South Agreement for reunification (The Agreement included plans for better mutual understanding, dissipation of tensions, promises of nonviolence, prohibitions of mutual censure, and economic, social, and cultural exchanges). The government has also proceeded with plans for official North-South negotiations.
Civilian organizations, in order to dissipate the ideologies maintaining warlike hostilities between the North and South, began to hold the Pan-Korean National Conference beginning in 1987. This year, 63 organizations of laborers, farmers, students, women, professors, and lawyers contributed to preparations for the Conference.
The Pan-Korean National Conference is an annual civilian event attended by Korean peoples from North and South Korea, as well as from abroad. In order to carry out the event in a peaceful and legal manner, the two above persons requested permission to hold the event from the government, but without any response, the government arrested them illegally one week before the Conference was to take place.
1. The arrest of the two above persons is problematic in several respects. First, their arrest has no legal basis even under the National Security Law. Secondly, it constitutes a method of suppressing the various social democratization and reunification movements. The government has recently stepped up its efforts to suppress the democratization movement. It has arrested 634 people since its inauguration, 454 just between January and July 1994.
1. Despite government suppression, 30,000 students, laborers, social activits, and civilians gathered to hold the Pan-Korean Conference. The government blockaded the conference site, dispatched police to interrupt the conference, and even dispatched five helicopters to spray tear gas on the site. 44 people were also arrested and charged for their links with the Conference.
1. The detention of the two persons was an illegal action as the arrest warrants issued on August 11 did not satisfy the conditions for emergency arrests stated in the Criminal Procedure Code. Complaints have been officially filed with the Prosecutor's Office against the Chairperson of the Seoul Police Administration and the police who illegally arrested the two persons. Shin, Chang-Kyun (88 years), Chairperson of the Pan-Korean Conference Executive Committee, as well as ten other veteran anti-government activists, also held a fast demanding the release of the two persons and the legalization of the Pan-Korean Conference.
1. The two arrested persons are social movement leaders who have long worked selflessly for democratization in Korea, the securing of workers' rights, and national unification. Yi, Chang-Bok (55 years) has worked in movements for the extreme poor and homeless and has held positions as the National Chairperson of the JOC, as well as the Vice Chairperson of the Korean Church Social Missions Association (an ecumenical association of both Protestant and Catholic organizations). During his term as NADUK president, he also participated actively in various workers' struggles; he was arrested during the Hyundai strike for violating laws prohibiting third-party intervention in labor disputes. The Korea Trade Union Congress, the anti-government trade union association, is also a member of the NADUK. During this time, he has been sought by the police for his activities in the unification and labor movements, has been arrested four times, and has served over five years in prison. This incident is his fifth arrest.
Hwang, In-Sung (42 years) has been arrested twice for his involvement in the student movement and has worked as the General Secretary of the Korean Christian Alliance for Democracy and Reunification and the Policy Division Chairperson at the NADUK. He was also arrested in 1991 for other social movement activities.
1. The Korean Women Workers Associations United (KWWAU) is requesting that your organization send a letter of protest to the Korean government demanding the immediate release of the above two persons and the repeal of the National Security Law, which legalizes serious violations of human rights in Korea. We also request that you inform other countries of this incident and encourage them to send protest letters as well. Please send a copy of your letter to NADUK.
Letters should be send to:
1) President Kim Young-Sam 2) Kim, Doo Hi
The Blue House Minister of Justice
Chong-no Ku, Sejong No 77-6 Kyung Ki do, Kwa-chun City
Seoul, Korea 110-760 Choong-ang Dong #1
Seoul, Korea 427-760
3) Kim, Do Un 4) Hwang, Nak Ju
Prosecutor-General Korean National Assembly Chairman
Choong Ku, Seo-so-moon Dong #38 National Assembly Building
Seoul, Korea 100-701 Yong Dong Po Gu, Yoido Dong
Seoul, Korea
Copies of letters should be sent to:
National Alliance for Democratization and Unification of Korea (NADUK)
Sung Buk Ku, Dong So Moon Dong 1-44
Sam Woo Building, Rm. 301
Seoul, Korea 136-031
1. KWWAU sends our solidarity to your organization.
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