British Columbia

Students demand S. Korean’s release

Vancouver

rally hails

Mandela’s freedom

There was genuine joy and a party atmosphere Feb. 11 when close to 300 jubilant anti-apartheid activists and supporters of the African National Congress in Vancouver turned out within hours of Nelson Mandela’s release from Capetown prison to join the world in celebrating the event.

The celebration was hastily organ- ized by the Anti-Apartheid Network and hosted by AAN chair Larry Kuehn at the auditorium of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation. A group of local musicians organized by Julius Fisher also responded to the call and led a spirited version of the song “Free Nelson Mandela” — “the song we don’t have to sing anymore.”

Vancouver ANC _ spokesperson George Lai could hardly contain his emotions with passionate salutes to ANC leaders, the ANC’s military wing Umkonto We Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), and to the ANC’s Cana- dian supporters.

But like all the speakers, Lai cauti- oned that only the first steps towards the dismantling of apartheid had been

| taken and_ that continued “interna- ~ tonal pressure was requited to’main-

tain the process.

Vancouver alderman Libby Davies also addressed the gathering and summed up the feelings of many when she reflected that it was a day to have our children remember, to underscore how the sacrifice and struggle of peo- ple can lead to freedom. “We all share in the fréedom won by Nelson Man-

-dela,” said Davies, pledging the con-

~ tinued solidarity of Canadians in‘the

fight against apartheid.

Long. time anti-apartheid activist Zayed Gamiet, SACTU Solidarity Committee representative Jef Keigh- ley, ANC member. Dawn Anthony and a representative of SWAPO also brought messages to the celebration.

Keighley outlined plans to establish a Canada-wide ‘solidarity - organiza- tion in co-operation with the ANC to unite all anti-apartheid groups in the country for a final push towards the end of apartheid. -

Although some television and daily newspaper accounts of the celebra- tion focused on some individuals who were critical of Mandela’s speech at Capetown City Hall and the outpour- ing of support for the’ ANC, they represented only themselves among the hundreds at the celebration.

GEORGE LAI .. go.

"apartheid ver to:

Students staged a noon-hour demonstra- tion at Vancouver’s Robson Square Feb. 10, hoping to arouse Canadian outrage at the conviction of a South Korean student who attended last year’s 13th World Festi- val of Youth and Students in Pyongyang, North Korea.

With a large banner draped over the stone wall adjoining the Vancouver Art Gallery’s south side steps, some 20 young Greater Vancouver residents handed, out leaflets containing a letter to External Affairs Minister Joe Clark.

The Association of Canadians in Solidar- ity with the Korea want Canada to recon- sider its strong economic and political ties with the U.S.-backed South Korean government following the sentencing to 10 years in prison of student activist Im Su Kyung on Feb. 5.

Im angered the South Korean govern- ment when she and a Catholic priest delib- erately crossed the demilitarized zone at the border village of Panmunjom last August upon returning from the festival, which drew 15,000 participants, from 170 coun- tries, including demonstration organizer Irwin Oostindie.

Im was “well received at the festival,” and her attendance already marked her for prosecution since the government forbids travel to North Korea without permission, Oostindie said.

The 20-year-old South Korean student represented Chondaeyhop, a one-million member student organization that calls for steps leading to the reunification of the two Koreas, created when the country was divided in 1945.

She attended the July, 1989 festival after travelling a circuitous route that took her from Tokyo through East Berlin, but delib- erately chose to return to her home at the.

demilitarized.zone dividing the-north and _

south. She’ was arrested there, along with” Moon Kyu-hyun, a priest who travelled to the zone to lend support, for violating South Korea’s draconian National Security Law. Father Moon was sentenced to an eight- year term.

Despite the arrests, more marches across the DMZ are planned: “Hopefully, one this summer,” Oostindie said.

Esteban Ahn, an Argentina-born Van- couver resident of Korean descent, said he attended the demonstration because “Koreans in the Vancouver community

Demonstrators at Robson Square hit South Korea’s human rights record.

aren’t concerned about what’s happening at home.”

The: video game programer said he planned to inform his relatives about the events.

Pam Frache, chair of the Canadian Fed- eration of Students-Pacific Region which participated in the demonstration, said solidarity with Chondaeyhop i is part of the federation’s ongoing campaign for students rights in other countries.

The CFS made its demands that the ban on the Korean student group be lifted and free exchanges between north and South Koreans be allowed to officials at the South Korean consulate in Ottawa last November, she said.

In Great, Britain, the National, Union of Students is waging a big campaign. for Im’ = release, Frache related. :

Recent reports from Amnesty Interna- tional conclude that human rights abuses in the past year have reversed the liberalizing trend of the previous two years, which fol- lowed several mass demonstrations of workers, students and other South Koreans and resulted in the eventual overthrow of the former dictatorship.

The government used the National Security Law, which forbids contact with North Koreans and even possessing books on the subject, to arrest hundreds in 1989,

Amnesty International reported last month. | The international human rights group said a crackdown in 1989 saw the arrest of

some 800 political activists and trade unio- nists, and thousands more in demonstra- tions. It has demanded the immediate release of 100 political prisoners.

The Canadian Youth Festival Society (CYFS), founded by young Canadians who

met Im at the World Youth Festival (WYF) | in North Korea, is disappointed but not —

surprised by the sentences.

The CFYS hopes mounting pressure will _

lead to the early release of Im and Moon, CFYS is encouraged by its efforts to rouse public awareness and opinion in Canada.

Less than two weeks after its first. protest —

picket in: Toronto, about_75 high. school students and supporters rallied | in -Edmon EF

ton Jan. 20.

Chondaeyhop, which was the omer of a

full-scale police investigation last year for its preparations for the 13th Youth and Stu- dents Festival, proposes the withdrawal of.

all foreign troops and nuclear weapons |

from the Korean peninsula, reductions in

both armies, the establishment of several inter-Korean student exchange programs, and negotiations leading to a “Confederate

Republic of Korea.”

Staff, with files from Chris Frazer in Toronto.

Thousands of unsafe motor vehicles are operating on our streets and highways. This applies not only to cars but also to trucks and other commercial vehicles. They are the cause of a significant percen- tage of accidents which result in death, injury, property damage, steadily increas- ing insurance rates and rising hospital and health care costs.

Much of the responsibility for this rests with the provincial government and its decision several years ago to abandon its motor vehicle inspection program. It was a good system, with minimal cost to the vehicle owner. It kept unsafe vehicles off the road. The removal of vehicle inspec- tion was part of. the government’s ill- advised privatization program. The plan was, and still is, to privatize motor vehicle inspections, to force vehicle owners to go to privately owned garages to have their cars and trucks inspected. Instead of the two or three dollars charged by the government, the private owners would be allowed to charge $100 or more if they wished, This type of private inspection lends itself to so much political patronage and abuse and has met with such wides- pread public opposition that the govern- ment hasn’t dared yet to put it into effect.

Record shows we ne¢

The patronage would result when cer- tain garages would be selected ' as certified motor vehicle inspection stations. It may be taken for granted that Social Credit supporters would be given preference. Also that the rates would be set high enough to enable these selected garages to donate generously when the Social Credit

bagman calls for donations to the Social Credit election fund. That’s the way our political system works. The abuse would come when some garages would claim your car needs repairs it really doesn’t need, just so the garage Owners can get the business and rip you off some more.

( ivetilcietectisc |

Today we have no real vehicle inspec- tion of any kind. Policé are required to keep on the lookout for unsafe vehicles and they do pull up drivers when they spot vehicles that seem unsafe and order them to be inspected and repaired. Few are caught this way. To make our police responsible for locating unsafe vehicles is wrong in the first place. Their job is to deal with crime. Vehicle inspection can and should be taken care of in other ways.

Our truck inspection system is also entirely inadequate, as, shown by investi- gations into accidents involving trucks.

Truck drivers are being pressed harder —

and harder to make long runs in vehicles that haven’t been properly inspected or repaired.

The evidence also is that Sr aaition of road maintenance has resulted in some cases of unsafe road conditions. The main concern of private contractors naturally is to keep down costs so as to keep profits up andasa result road maintenance is kept at a minimum.

The only viable solution to this whole situation is to restore a government owned and operated compulsory vehicle inspec- tion system. The same applies to road maintenance.

2 « Pacific Tribune, February 19, 1990

j