Thursday, June 22, 2000
Koon-ni training halted briefly as protesters occupy
target island
By Jim Lea
Osan bureau chief
OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea - Training was briefly suspended at the U.S.
Air Force's Koon-ni bombing and gunnery range Tuesday when seven South Korean
student activists and a Catholic priest occupied the target island there.
A Hwasong County police spokesman said all eight were apprehended and
being questioned Wednesday. They had not, however, been formally arrested,
the spokesman said.
A spokesman for the group leading the protest against the range said
its activities will continue "even if someone is killed" while
occupying the island.
The police spokesman and Capt. Bernadette Dozier, 51st Fighter Wing spokeswoman
at Osan, said that at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, six intruders were spotted on Nong
Island - the primary bombing target island about a mile off-shore at Koon-ni.
The police spokesman said all six are members of the National Federation
of Student Councils, a staunchly anti-American group outlawed by the South
Korean government because it promotes North Korean political ideology.
The spokesman said the six reached the island by boat. South Korean riot
police, who have been on duty at the range for more than a month, went to
the island to apprehend them. Training planned for the day had not begun
when the students were spotted.
Later in the day, at 4:15 p.m., Dozier said, a U.S. Army helicopter preparing
to conduct a training mission at the range and making a "safety sweep"
spotted two more people on the island and notified range officials. Training
missions were immediately suspended, and the two people were taken off the
island by a police helicopter, Dozier said.
Training operations resumed between 5:30 and 6 p.m., she said.
The police spokesman said one of the people taken off the island in the
afternoon was a Catholic priest. The other was a student.
Dozier said no training missions were flown while the protesters were
on the island. The Air Force does not use live bombs in training at Koon-ni,
using instead concrete-filled dummy bombs. While those weapons will not
explode, anyone on the island when missions are being conducted obviously
is in great danger.
A spokesman for the Maehyang-ri Countermeasures Committee - the group
leading the protest against the range, demanding that it be closed - contacted
by telephone Wednesday said attempts to occupy the target island will continue
"even if someone is killed. We will not stop our fight until the training
is ended and the range is closed."
The South Korean Defense Ministry has said the range cannot be relocated
because there is no other suitable site. The Ministry and the Air Force
have said the range cannot be closed because it is vital to maintaining
U.S. pilots' readiness to help defend South Korea.
The Hwasong police spokesman said some 2,000 riot police were on duty
at the facility Tuesday and again Wednesday. He said they have been stationed
at the shoreline on either side of the range, on the road that leads to
the main gate and inside the outer fence around the facility.
He said outsiders suspected to be part of the protest are being kept
away from the facility, but noted there are many routes to the range over
the hills that border the facility and police cannot cover them all.
There have been at least two violent clashes between riot police and
protesters near the main gate to the range in the last two weeks. On Saturday,
the countermeasures committee said 20 people - students and labor unionists
- were injured, but police will not confirm that. The other violent clash
occurred June 6.
Some news agencies also have complained that photographers and cameramen
were manhandled by police Saturday. Television footage of the protest showed
police attempting to cover camera lenses with their hands.
Tuesday was the second time apprehensions have been reported at the range
since the protest began in early May. The leader of the protest, Chun Man-kyu,
was arrested June 2 when he ripped down warning flags that had been raised
at the range indicating training missions would be held. He also has been
charged with damaging the outer fence of the facility. He is being held
by the prosecutor's office in Suwon, the provincial capital about 10 miles
east of the range.
The range was closed after the pilot of an Osan A-10 jet was forced to
drop six live 500-pound bombs near Nong Island when his plane developed
engine trouble May 8. Maehyang-ri villagers said explosion of the bombs
caused injuries and damage to homes. An investigation by the South Korean
Defense Ministry, U.S. Forces Korea and two independent firms, one of them
hired by villagers, determined that there were no injuries or damage and
no pilot error involved.
The range was reopened June 2 for one day, but was closed again - along
with other South Korean and U.S. military training ranges in the country
- during the inter-Korean summit. Koon-ni reopened for training Monday.
Not all residents in the sub-villages that make up the Maehyang-ri complex
have joined the protest. Those who have, however, have attracted support
from a number of religious, environmental and civic groups, labor unions
and radical students. Hundreds of outsiders have become involved in the
Koon-ni protest.
Most are demanding not only that the range be closed, but also that all
U.S. troops be withdrawn from South Korea.
They contend that the warming relations triggered by the South-North
summit have removed the possibility of war on the peninsula and that U.S.
troops are no longer needed here.
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, however, has said the troops still
are necessary and will be even if the two Koreas unite.
Bae Gi-chul contributed to this report.
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