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乔姆斯基:世界和平命悬济州岛

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济州岛,距离朝鲜半岛主岛50英里,一直以来被称作这个星球上最具田园风光之地。这座706平方英里的原始火山岛上有三处联合国科教文组织认定的世界自然遗产。

然而济州岛的历史却与田园牧歌相去甚远。在1948年,也就是韩战爆发之前的两年,济州岛上的岛民就为朝鲜半岛被划分为南北两部分而发动了一场武装起义。在美军占领下的本岛南韩政府很快就镇压了这场济州岛武装起义。

当时,南韩的警察与武装军队屠杀济州岛岛民并且摧毁当地村庄。韩国历史学专家约翰•梅里尔(John•Merrill)估算那次屠杀的死亡人数可能超过30000人,这一数字大约占济州岛人口的15%。

几十年后,一个政府委员会对济州岛起义事件进行调查。在2005年,韩国总统卢武铉为当时本岛政府的暴行致歉并且将济州岛命名为"世界和平之岛"。

今天,济州岛再一次面临美韩联军的暴力威胁:在济州岛最美丽的海岸上,建一处海军基地。

四年多来,济州岛岛民以及和平爱好者们冒着生命危险,长期坚持抵抗海军基地。

世界也面临着和平威胁。最近,韩国首尔的《中央日报》将济州岛形容为"国防线的先锋"--战线距离中国只有300英里。

在这滩浑水里,济州岛海军基地还将组织约20艘美韩战舰--包括潜艇、飞行器运输舰以及驱逐舰,其中的一些军舰将会被用来配合"宙斯盾"弹道导弹防御系统。

对于美国来讲,建造济州岛海军基地的意图在于加强针对中国的武力--并且为军事冲突预先设置可掌控的军事基地。世界最不想要的事情就是中美进入战争边缘。

现在发生在济州岛的抗议活动被认为是反抗在亚洲发生一场潜在却极富毁灭性的大战的关键一搏,同时这些抗议活动也旨在于反抗那个把世界引向更加动荡的根深蒂固的体制结构。

毫无疑问,中国认为这个海军基地威胁到了他的国家安全。至少,这个海军基地将会引起一系列反抗并且引发中韩之间的军备竞赛,美国也会无可避免地卷入。

如果不能阻止这样一个危险且具有毁灭性的规划,那么将会引起一系列影响远远超出亚洲范围的后果。

我们简直不用想就知道,如果得知中国要在美国海岸线建造军事基地,华盛顿政府会做出什么样的反应。

济州岛的这座新的海军基地所在的江亭村(Gangjeong),是一座以务农和捕鱼为生的村落,现在这个小村庄不得不成为保卫和平的战场。

江亭村(Gangjeong)的和平保卫战作为一个由民众发起的草根运动,已经远远超出济州岛军事化所引发的话题。人权,环保以及言论自由的情况同样岌岌可危。尽管地处偏远,江亭村(Gangjeong)对于相信全球社会公正的人们来说仍然是一个极其重要的战场。

韩国在一月份的时候开始建造军事基地,但是持续的抗议使得这项工程不得不在6月份中止下来。

一位目击者报告说这座小村庄里的村民们的非暴力抗议活动已经导致一些逮捕事件的发生,一些电影制作人,博客作家,牧师神职人员,社会活动家--尤其是社会性的网站负责人以及这次运动的领导人被锁定。

就在上个月,防暴警察冲入了一个非暴力集会并且逮捕了三十多位活动参与者,包括江亭村(Gangjeong)的村长--他是韩国的和平组织中最有影响力的领导人之一,被逮捕的还有一名天主教的牧师。

基本的民主理念也遭到亵渎,在2007年这个海军基地建设的授权表决会上,87个人的选择决定了这整个村庄1900个村民以及岛屿上5000个岛民的命运,据报道其中一些选民还涉嫌受贿。

岛民被告知此军事基地还将兼饰游艇观光中心,确实这也是停泊在该岛码头的船舶获取商业利益的唯一途径。但是这种论调很难让人置信,除非是因为同时在另一个海滨已经开始了一个大规模港口扩建工程,并且在2012年夏天即将竣工。还要有人宣布这个新的港口将会拥有巡航班轮。

江亭村(Gangjeong)的村民完全了解如果他们和平的呼声不被重视的后果,也就是:南韩以及外国军事人员、先进武器装备的介入将会使得已经承受了许多痛苦的小岛卷入整个世界的纷争之中。具有讽刺意味的是,未来超级大国间冲突的种子正被播种在一个生态保护区和和平之岛上。

作者诺姆•乔姆斯基最近的一本书是:《9•11,是否还有另一种选择?》,他是剑桥麻省理工大学语言学以及哲学的荣誉退休教授。

2011年10月7日,星期五,发表于《新评论》(New Analysis)的"说出真相"(Truthout)栏目,观察者网翻译。

译者:郭世嘉 张敏 余果

英文:

The Threat of Warships on an "Island of World Peace"


Friday 7 October 2011

by: Noam Chomsky, Truthout | News Analysis 

Song Kang-ho, an activist opposing a naval base under construction, near the construction site, in Gangjeong village on Jeju Island, South Korea, August 2, 2011.

Jeju Island, 50 miles southeast of South Korea's mainland, has been called the most idyllic place on the planet. The pristine, 706-square-mile volcanic island comprises three UNESCO World Natural Heritage sites.

Jeju's history, however, is far from idyllic. In 1948, two years before the outbreak of the Korean War, the islanders staged an uprising to protest, among other issues, the division of the Korean Peninsula into North and South. The mainland government, then under U.S. military occupation, cracked down on the Jeju insurgents.
 
South Korean police and military forces massacred islanders and destroyed villages. Korea historian John Merrill estimates that the death toll may have exceeded 30,000, about 15 percent of the island's population.

Decades later, a government commission investigated the Jeju uprising. In 2005, Roh Moo-hyun, then South Korea's president, apologized for the atrocities and designated Jeju as an "Island of World Peace."

Today Jeju Island is once again threatened by joint U.S.-South Korean militarization and violence: the construction of a naval base on what many consider to be Jeju's most beautiful coastline.

For more than four years, island residents and peace activists have engaged in determined resistance to the base, risking their lives and freedom.

The stakes are high for the world as well. Recently the Korean JoongAng Daily, in Seoul, described the island as "the spearhead of the country's defense line" - a line recklessly located 300 miles from China.

In these troubled waters, the Jeju base would host up to 20 American and South Korean warships, including submarines, aircraft carriers and destroyers, several of which would be fitted with the Aegis ballistic-missile defense system.

For the United States, the base's purpose is to project force toward China - and to provide a forward operating installation in the event of a military conflict. The last thing the world needs is brinksmanship between the U.S. and China.

The protest now taking place on Jeju counts as a critical struggle against a potentially devastating war in Asia, and against the deeply rooted institutional structures that are driving the world toward ever more conflict.

Not surprisingly, China sees the base as a threat to its national security. At the very least, the base is likely to trigger confrontation and an arms race between South Korea and China, with the U.S. almost inevitably involved.

Failure to prevent this dangerous, destructive project may well have consequences reaching far beyond Asia.

We need not speculate how the Washington would react were China to establish a base near the U.S. coast.

The new base on Jeju is located in Gangjeong, a farming and fishing village that has reluctantly become the site of an epic battle for peace.

The resistance is a grassroots movement that goes well beyond the issue of the island's militarization. Human rights, the environment and free speech are also at stake. Though small and remote, Gangjeong is an important battleground for all who believe in social justice worldwide.

South Korea started construction of the base in January but protests halted the work in June.

An eyewitness reports that the villagers' nonviolent resistance has led to arrests targeting filmmakers, bloggers, clerics, activists on social-network websites - and most notably, the leaders of the movement.

Last month, riot police broke up a nonviolent rally and arrested more than three dozen activists, including the mayor of Gangjeong; the leader of one of the most effective peace groups in Korea; and a Catholic priest.

Basic democratic ideals are also under threat. In the 2007 vote to authorize the construction of the naval base, 87 people, some of whom reportedly were bribed, decided the fate of an entire village of 1,900 and an island of more than a half-million people.

Islanders were told that the military base would double as a tourism hub for cruise ships - indeed, that it would be the only means for such ships to dock at the island, yielding commercial benefits. The claim is hardly credible, if only because at the same time, on a different shore, a massive port expansion project has been underway and could be completed by summer 2012. It has already been announced that this new port will host cruise liners.

Gangjeong villagers know full well what their future holds if their cry for peace is not heeded: an influx of South Korean and foreign military personnel, advanced armaments, and a world of suffering delivered to a small island that has already endured enough. The irony is that the seeds for future superpower conflict are being sown on an ecological preserve and island of peace.

(Noam Chomsky's most recent book is '9-11: Was There an Alternative?' Chomsky is emeritus professor of linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

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