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- How much longer must Iraqi women and children be sacrificed?
 ¢¸"Troops
cannot be dispatched to an unjustifiable war."
The Anti-War Peace Alliance, made up of more than 700 women
and civic groups, has been holding demonstrations in front
of the National Assembly since March 22, demanding that the
government retract its decision to send troops to Iraq. Their
one desire is to stop hearing gunshots anywhere in this world.
<photograph by Min Won-ki>
Through his address to the nation on March 20, Korean president
Roh Moo-hyun said that he would "make every diplomatic
effort to prevent the war from adversely affecting issues
involving the two Koreas, including the nuclear conflict."
In response, women and civic groups have said that they will
even consider impeachment to stop the now one-month-old administration
from supporting the war on Iraq. They have already planned
rejection campaigns against the assemblymen who are in favor
of dispatching Korean troops to Iraq.
President of the People's Alliance Oh Jong-ryul said during
the protest in front of the National Assembly on March 24
that "the government is making a shallow calculation
in expecting the US to promise a peaceful resolution to the
North Korean nuclear crisis in return for supporting the US's
war on Iraq." Oh appealed to the public to oppose the
troop dispatch, saying that "if Korea demands other people's
sacrifice to protect its own peace and security, it cannot
expect the sympathy of the international community when danger
strikes the Korean peninsula."
Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died of starvation
and disease since the Gulf War in 1991. On February 13 that
year, a bomb that American troops dropped on an air raid shelter
in Baghdad killed 400 civilians. 300 of them were children.
And during the war of retribution on Afghanistan after the
9.11 terrorist attacks, some 13 thousand civilians were killed.
Despite the massive loss of lives that war inevitably brings,
most the world's nations show far more interest in the gains
of the victor than the wretched losses of the defeated.
The situation in Iraq as reported by Yoo, Han and Bae - currently
in Iraq as part of the Stop the War Coalition's human shield
project - is filled with tension and despair that most of
the media has failed to portray. "Yesterday (March 16),
we had an all-day anti-war performance in al-Tawhid (Liberation)
Square. We bought pipes and other stuff to make pulleys and
mock missiles. During the performance, I did the traditional
Korean dance, slowly moving towards a field of missiles, where
I tried to express the destruction and suffering of Iraq.
Doubled up with pain, I touched the faces of the Iraqi children
and cried. I thought, This is all I can do with the war hours
away - put up pictures, dance and cry. I don't remember what
I did next. In the end, I took a child and sat on the picture
with her. The message we wanted to express was, 'Do not kill
our future.'"
'The Last Letter from Baghdad" sent by Yoo shows with
heart-wrenching clarity the desperation she feels at being
unable to do anything but cry for the innocent children who
have no idea why the war is happening.
Yoo's letter pulled at the heartstrings of people put off
by media reports that have been criticized for being a mere
live broadcast of the war. Korean media companies have sent
their own journalists to cover the war, but most of them still
subscribe to the American, or CNN-style view of the war. There
is a dearth of reports that show the actual situation in Arab
nations including Iraq.
Secretary Lee Mi-kyung of the Environment Foundation says
that she watched TV news of US missiles raining down on Baghdad
with her children. "When I think of how the kids took
in the scenes of US planes dropping precision-guided bombs
right on target as if flaunting their accuracy, it becomes
clear that scenes of the war are in themselves a form of violence."
Oh Kim Sook-yi, a member of the Korean Peace Team who returned
from Jordan on March 23, said at a press conference, "We
have never let go of even the thinnest thread of hope that
we could prevent this war. We must now create an even bigger
wave of anti-war peace campaigns in order to stop the war
that demands the blood of countless Iraqis."
Lee An-na (aged 36), one of the protesters in front of the
National Assembly on March 25, stressed, "I heard that
half the Iraqi population are children under 15 years of age.
The Korean government should realize that it will forever
brand Korea as a shameful war criminal by pursuing its own
gains in a war that is killing civilians including women,
children and the elderly." As if to prove Lee's point,
continued mistakes and misbombings by the coalition forces
have left civilian deaths in their wake. On March 24, an American
bomber bombarded a patriot missile fort near the Islamic city
of Nazaf by mistake, but casualties have yet to be accounted
for.
When two missiles struck Turkey on March 23, thankfully causing
no casualties, the Turkish public protested vehemently. On
the same day, a missile fired by American troops near Ar Rutbar
in west Iraq hit a bus carrying civilians, killing 5 Syrians
and severely injuring another 10.
The Korean Human Rights Commission warned, "Civilian
casualties in Iraq have skyrocketed since the US troops began
their indiscriminate air raids. This war, launched without
UN sanctions, will only take innocent lives." In the
past decade, Korea has dispatched troops to support wars fought
by the US on six occasions - to the Gulf War in 1991, Somalia
in 1993, West Sahara in 1994, Angola in 1995, East Timor in
1999 and Afghanistan in 2001. And today we are on the brink
of getting involved in yet another war.
<reported byShin Ah-Ryeung arshin@womennews.co.kr>
 ¢¸
Civic group members who had asked to attend the National Assembly
session to pass the bill to dispatch troops to Iraq being
dragged out of the hall by riot police after the ruling and
opposition party unanimously decided to deny their request.
<photograph by Min Won-ki>
The bill to send Korean troops to Iraq, scheduled for deliberation
at the National Assembly on March 25, was postponed to April
2 due to nationwide anti-war protests including threats by
women and civic groups to launch rejection campaigns against
assemblymen in favor of the troop dispatch.
The government, which had expected the bill to be passed without
trouble, seems to have taken a step back in the face of the
unexpectedly strong public resistance, not to mention the
announcement by civic groups to reject politicians who are
in favor of troop dispatch during the general election next
year.
Five women legislators officially took their stand against
the troop dispatch on March 24, and women and civic groups
have taken the same stand, launching a sit-in strike in front
of the National Assembly beginning March 22. Civic groups
including KWAU asked to be present as observers at the March
25 National Assembly session to pass the troop dispatch bill.
On the day itself, they demonstrated fiercely both inside
and outside the National Assembly building, to the point of
getting arrested by riot police. As the general meeting of
ruling and opposition party members preceding the session
stretched out, the session, originally scheduled for 2 p.m.,
was put off repeatedly, and eventually rescheduled to a later
date.
Although the government has retreated for now in the face
of vehement protests, civic groups predict that it will eventually
push ahead with the troop dispatch as it has officially sided
the US in the war. Accordingly, civic and women groups are
planning to launch rejection campaigns together with their
anti-war campaign.
"Now that the bill has been postponed, we will continue
to build public opposition against the war and prevent the
troop dispatch bill from being passed at the National Assembly.
We have already proposed that President Roh hold a national
talk with citizens, and we will demand that he give in to
public opinion on this issue," announced the KWAU.
As Secretary Jeong Su-young of the Anti-War Peace Alliance
points out, "the postponement is merely a superficial
move to earn time for President Roh to speak before the National
Assembly on the inevitability of the troop dispatch, followed
by assemblymen putting up a show of accepting Roh's rationale
and passing the bill." Jeong emphasized, "We will
continue to organize demonstrations and generate public consensus
to fight to the end, so that Korea will not send its troops
to support an unjustifiable war."
<reported by Na Shin Ah-Ryeung arshin@womennews.co.kr>
- Kim's claim at the High Court for property division and
alimony
A homosexual has filed for property division and alimony
following the end of her de facto marriage. As the first of
its kind in Korea, the case is drawing public interest regarding
its outcome.
On March 17, Kim (aged 46) filed a lawsuit at the Seoul High
Court against K (aged 47), whom she had been living with for
21 years, demanding that half of the 1 billion Won worth of
assets that they had earned while living as a couple, together
with an alimony of 200 million Won, be given to her, as K's
wife of 21 years."
Han Dae-sam (aged 41), Kim's attorney, revealed, "Although
de facto marriages are not officially recorded in the family
registrar, it is possible for the couple involved to claim
property division as well as alimony. This doesn't pose a
problem when the couple is heterosexual, but this case is
going to be pretty difficult as it presupposes legal recognition
of marriage between homosexuals."
Part of the media has reported the story as an "unusual
lawsuit" or "a case without easily identifiable
precedents anywhere in the world," focusing on the frequency
of sexual intercourse between two co-habiting lesbians rather
than on the human rights of homosexuals.
The Korea Center for Human Rights of Sexual Minorities says,
"The media should refrain from turning this case into
a curiosity show. The lawsuit isn't particularly novel, nor
is it uncommon throughout the world."
Even before Europe legislated laws recognizing marriages between
homosexuals, lawsuits to claim property division or inheritance
were filed frequently as part of the gay rights campaign for
homosexual couples to gain the same recognition that heterosexual
enjoy. On November 15, 2000, the European Parliament adopted
a resolution calling on the 15 E.U. member countries to grant
homosexual couples the same rights as heterosexual couples.
And Holland followed Denmark in recognizing homosexual couples'
right to wed.
Denmark granted homosexual couples the rights to legal marriages
in 1989, but has yet to recognize their rights to adopt children.
A law legislated in 1999 allows homosexual couples in Denmark
to adopt children if one partner is the biological parent
of the child. As for Sweden, legal marriages between homosexuals
have yet to be recognized, but they enjoy most of the rights
recognized in heterosexual marriages.
The Korea Center for Human Rights of Sexual Minorities says,
"Although the court decision will take another few months,
we strongly appeal to the Seoul High Court to make the wise
decision of guaranteeing human beings' right to equal treatment."
Kim, who was reluctant to be interviewed as her case is still
pending in court, revealed over the phone that she has "suffered
undue humiliation" because of news stories focusing on
her privacy rather than her human rights. She is currently
"in a state of severe exhaustion."
On the other hand, her ex-partner K is said to have denied
having a homosexual relationship with Kim, maintaining that
she had been Kim's guardian all along.
<reported by Dong Kim Sung-hye dong@womennews.co.kr>
- to open in Seoul from April 8 to 12
The 2003 International Festival of Women in Music Today (IFW,
honorary president First Lady Kwon Yang-sook, president Lee
Young-ja, honorary president of the Korean Society of Women
Composers), expected to launch Korean women musicians onto
the world stage and facilitate exchanges between women musicians
of the world, will be opening in Seoul from April 8 to 12.
Organized by the International Alliance for Women in Music
(IAWM), the IFW has been held biennially in Athens, Rome and
London. For the first time in its history, the event is being
held in an Asian city, Seoul, with the Korean Society of Women
Composers (KSWC) acting as co-organizer.
Under the slogan 'Voices of Women Musicians,' the event boasts
an unprecedented scale of some 300 women musicians from all
over the world, consisting of 71 composers from 23 countries
including the US, Canada, the UK, Germany and France, 238
conductors and instrumentalists, and 10 lecturers and seminar
panelists. In addition, the event takes on special significance
as a crossing of the East and West, new and traditional music,
and as a joint creation by scholars, performers and composers
of music.
The IFW will showcase the works of famous women musicians
from home and abroad, including the first woman Pulitzer-winning
composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, America's famous composer Joan
Tower, Taiwanese conductor Apo Hsu, Korean American composer
and komunko (six-string Korean harp) player Kim Jin-hee, founder
of the KSWC Lee Young-ja, Korean National University of Arts
professor Kim Nam-yoon, and Yonsei University professor Lee
Chan-hae. There will also be seminars dealing with the history,
activities and status of women musicians.
 ¢¸
Kim Hee-jeong, professor of Composition, Sangmyung University,
and executive director of the 2003 IFW. <photograph by
Min Won-ki>
The 2003 IFW will begin at 6:30 on April 8 in the Seoul Arts
Center with an opening ceremony and Joan Tower's opening concert
Fanfare for the Uncommon Women. Scheduled for April 9 are
Seminar I 'Are Women Musicians Today Moving from Success to
Significance?' in Ehwa Women's University, Chamber Music Concert
I in Kumho Art Hall, and the Korean Traditional Music Orchestra
Concert by KBS in the National Center for Korean Traditional
Performing Arts. Lined up for the third day, April 10, are
Seminar II 'Female Musicians in the History of Korean Traditional
Music,' Concert & Workshop I on electronic music and Chamber
Music Concert II 'New Music for Ethnic Instruments' in Sookmyung
Women's University, plus Chamber Music Concert III in Hoam
Art Hall. On April 11, Workshop II, Chamber Music Concert
IV and V will be held in Yonsei University, Kumho Art Hall
and Rodin Gallery respectively. And on April 12, the last
day of the IFW, the organizers have planned the Country Report
and Panel Discussion in Yonsei University, Chamber Music Concert
VI 'New Music for Korean Traditional Instruments' at Gyeongbok
Palace, plus an Operatic Theater at 6 p.m. in Hoam Art Hall
as the grand finale. All profits from the opening concert
will be donated to women organizations.
¡á for inquiries, go to the 2003 IFW website at
www.ifw.or.kr.
<reported by Kam Hyun-joo soon@womennews.co.kr>
(The Women's News http://www.womennews.co.kr)
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