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A blitz demolition of empty houses at the future site of a U.S. military base got rolling early Wednesday morning but owing to an all-out blockade set up by the police, the feared large-scale confrontation with residents never materialized. Mobilizing 400 workers along with tractors and other heavy equipment, the Defense Ministry and police launched the removal project that spans some 90 empty houses stretching from Doduri to Daechuri village.
As soon as the excavators moved in, a few remaining residents of the area along with members of the coalition "Pan-national Committee to Deter the Expansion of Pyeongtaek U.S. Base" launched their own countermeasures which consisted of climbing to the roofs of residences slated for demolition in threes and fours and binding themselves together with rope, as well as parking their tractors on the village roads to impede the movements of the government¡¯s own equipment. Despite their efforts, most of the protesters ended up watching from the sidelines as the excavators rolled on because of the government¡¯s far superior numbers. The government deployed no less than 164 companies of police -- some 15,000 sets of boots -- that set up impenetrable blockade around the houses meanwhile cutting off the four routes into the village, thereby preventing any contact with area residents and protesters.
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Members of an organization that seeks to block the expansion of a U.S. military base in the Daechuri district of Pyeongtaek stages a protest on the roof of a house that was slated for demolition today in Gyeonggi Province./Yonhap
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Members of citizens¡¯ organizations and student protesters from the Confederation of Korean Student Unions, better known as "Hanchongnyon," were blocked from entering the demolition area.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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