hankyoreh

July 22. The activists staged an occupation to protest the Lee Myung-bak administration’s unpopular Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. 　

By Kim Ki-seong

Calling for an end to the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, major leaders from local chapters of the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM) carried out a surprise occupation Thursday morning of the Ipo Weir site on the Han River and the Haman Weir site on the Nakdong River.

At around 5 a.m. Thursday, Busan KFEM Secretary General Choi Soo-young and Jinju KFEM Secretary General Lee Hwan-moon used a rubber boat to enter the Haman Weir construction site in Gilgok Township, Changnyeong County, South Gyeongsang Province. They subsequently took over a 40-meter crane installed at the site. The Korea Water Resources Corporation had dismantled most of the equipment in anticipation of heavy rains on July 16 and 17, but the crane was not taken down because it was deemed to present no safety issues.

Meanwhile, at around 3:25 a.m. the same morning, Seoul KFEM Secretary General Yum Hyung-cheol, Suwon KFEM Secretary General Jang Dong-bin, and Goyang KFEM Executive Committee Chairman Park Pyeong-su began an occupation atop the skirt board of the 30-meter fifth column of Ipo Weir in Daesin Township, Yeoju County, located in Han River Zone 3.

During a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh, Yeom, who had brought food, water, and gasoline for a generator to the indefinite occupation, said that the KFEM “opted for an occupation because we could no longer sit by and watch the irrational and anti-ecological destruction of life.”

“The government needs to halt the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project before it is too late, and establish a pan-societal discussion body to find alternatives and solutions,” Yeom said.

Following the occupation Thursday morning, the KFEM formally called upon the Lee Myung-bak administration to immediately halt the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, establish a body for citizen dialogue, and form a special committee within the National Assembly to examine the project.

“The government has merely been entrusted with authority, yet it is disregarding the objections of a majority of South Koreans and pushing forward with the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project,” said KFEM Secretary General Kim Jong-nam, visiting the site of occupation at Ipo Weir. “As the representative public servant, Mr. Lee Myung-bak needs to pursue true dialogue with the people, the ones who hold real sovereignty.”

An advertisement installed at the top of Ipo Weir bearing the words “Yeoju’s Landmark Weir” was covered up Thursday with a large banner reading “Leave the Four Rivers Alone,” and the occupiers also put up a banner reading “SOS 4 RIVERS” in English. The occupiers on Ipo Weir cut off a makeshift path connecting with the weir in order to prevent others from entering. About 50 civic group members from the Busan and South Gyeongsang area held a candlelight demonstration at 7:30 Thursday evening in front of the Haman Weir construction site, where they called for a halt to the Four Major Rivers Project.

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