Korean bishop slams govt over pro-rich policies

Published Date: November 27, 2009

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Korean government-backed development projects serve the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor, Bishop Boniface Choi Ki-san of Incheon says.

“Because of indiscreet development projects, poor people have continuously been forced out of their homes,” he charged in a statement released ahead of Human Rights Sunday which falls on Dec. 6, UCA News reports.

The bishop also took aim at the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, launched recently.

“It will cause irrevocable damage to the environment by destroying the eco-system of four rivers,” Bishop Choi said of the ambitious 22.2 trillion won (US$19.3 billion) plan to dredge and dam waterways.

Bishop Choi also said the government was to blame for an incident in Yongsan in downtown Seoul in January where five tenants of a building and a policeman were burnt to death during a police eviction raid.

He said the government had shown an “irresponsible attitude” to the victims who he says “burnt to death during the police’s violent suppression.”

“Redevelopment projects … are only for the interests of the rich and powerful without considering the poor in many cases,” said the bishop, who is also president of Committee for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea.

The Yongsan incident came to public attention again in October when the Seoul Central District Court gave tenants jail terms of up to six years for hurting policemen with Molotov cocktails during the raid.

The Four Rivers project, which includes 16 weirs, will be built by 11 of Korea’s biggest construction companies including Hyundai, Daewoo, Samsung and steel giant POSCO.

The government says the scheme will not damage the environment.

But environmentalists and Church members have opposed the plans. Retired Bishop Paul Choi Deog-ki of Suwon celebrated a riverside Mass on Nov. 24 against the project with some 400 priests, Religious and NGO activists from Seoul archdiocese, and Incheon, Suwon and Uijeongbu dioceses.

An official of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, who refused to be named, said that Yongsan redevelopment projects were aimed at improving an underdeveloped area.

“The problem is the tension between the building owners and tenants who want more compensation. The city never ignores the tenants’ human rights,” he said.

SOURCE

Bishop slams government ‘policies for the rich’ (UCA News)

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