(Note: “Zeitun” (Arabic for “olive”) is the name given to the Korean force dispatched to Iraq. The Yollin Uri Party is the ruling party in the National Assembly (parliament). The Hannara Party is an opposition party.)

Statement issued by a coalition of Korean peace groups opposed to the stationing of Korean troops in Iraq.

The National Assembly must not approve the motion to extend the deployment of Korean troops to Iraq.

It appears that the lawmakers will rubber-stamp the proposal to extend the deployment of Korean troops, ignoring the state of affairs in Iraq.

1.The ruling Yollin Uri Party intends to rush through the vote on extending the troop deployment.

Both last year and this year, the proposal to extend the troop deployment wasn’t even debated properly, neither was the government’s plan examined closely at all. Both the ruling and opposition parties are just debating this to serve their own political interests; the troop deployment question is just a secondary factor.

We strongly denounce the Yollin Uri Party and the Hannara Party for their dereliction of duty.

2.The National Assembly’s unprincipled struggle over the troop deployment openly reveals what the National Assembly is really like.

The Hannara Party, even while it showers criticism on the government and the Yollin Uri Party saying that they have no intention of extending the troop deployment, or still worse, that they’re preparing to withdraw the troops, consistently pursues its own political interests by shifting to the government and the ruling party the blame that resulted from dispatching the troops.

The Yollin Uri Party’s behaviour likewise is quite a spectacle.

Whenever the troop deployment is voted on, the Yollin Uri Party is reduced to a rubber stamp.

The National Assembly already has voted on this -- how many times? -- without any debate at all.

There was only passive voting in favour of the government’s proposal.

The plan to extend the dispatch of troops to Iraq is a very serious matter.

It is the obligation of the National Assembly to explain to the nation in detail why our forces must be stationed in Iraq and for how much longer, what the various problems are involved, and what we could endure because of this.

3.The questions of the political justification for continued support for the Iraq occupation and of the threats to national security have become the most critical problems in the international community and in all countries that sent troops, but these are not discussed by our government or our National Assembly. This situation is hard to understand. It must be explained to the people.

4.The No Mu Hyeon government, the Yollin Uri Party, and the Hannara Party equally cite the Korean-US alliance as the rationale for the irresponsible political decision.

As we have repeatedly emphasized, if the alliance is damaged because of the issue of withdrawing the troops from Iraq, it’s logical now that the alliances between the US and all the other coalition countries will also be damaged.

This is because all the countries that sent troops are discussing withdrawal and notifying the US of their plans to withdraw their troops.

However, the Korean government even declares that they would also undertake the additional mission of protecting the UN quarters, which the US asked them to do.

With reference to this, the National Assembly hasn’t demanded an explanation of the timetable for withdrawing the troops nor can it even say that the additional mission is not permissible.

5.In a public speech delivered on December 14, the day before the Iraqi general elections, US President Bush admitted that he made a mistake. “...And it is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As President, I’m responsible for the decision to go into Iraq...”.

Likewise, in a year-end press conference held on 21 December at the UN headquarters, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that what he most regretted during his term of office was being unable to prevent the Iraq war.

Iraq’s president and Iraq’s National Security Council say that coalition troops could be withdrawn from 14 of Iraq’s 18 provinces, and Irbil is the province where such conditions are most fully developed.

Even though the conditions are like that, the government and the National Assembly insist that the troop deployment be prolonged for the sake of Iraqi democracy, at the request of the UN and the Iraqi government.

6.Ban Ki Mun, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, instead of criticizing the US occupation of Iraq, announced on December 19 that he told US Secretary of State Rice that Korea will continue to work in Iraq until true democracy is established.

However, the foreign minister of a country that has undergone foreign occupation should not speak that way.

Does Foreign Minister Ban sincerely believe that democracy and human rights can be firmly established through an unjust occupation?

In fact the vote-rigging controversy that arose over the general election results will not subside in an Iraq that was forced into a maelstrom of armed conflict in vehement protest against the unjust occupation.

The so-called Iraq democratization timetable, which the US, as the occupying power, is pushing forward, accelerates the disintegration of Iraq, conflict, and shifting political alliances, so that it causes more suffering for the Iraqi people.

7.Sharing the fate of the US-British occupation force and stationing troops long-term in Iraq will inevitably boomerang back on us.

Since little time remains before the period set for the troop deployment runs out, it is unacceptable to once again rush through the motion to extend it.

The National Assembly must not allow itself to become a rubber stamp for the government’s policies.

They must immediately stop the motion to again extend the troop deployment.

The Zeitun troops must be withdrawn at once.

If the extension of the troop deployment -- which is opposed by the vast majority of the population -- is again rushed through the legislature, the No Mu Hyeon government and the ruling and opposition parties can’t avoid public censure and resistance.

2005-12-30

The National Movement to Oppose the Dispatch of Korean Troops to Iraq