Anti-nuke activists barred from entry to South Korea

[한겨레] Members of Greenpeace will file UNHRC compliant after being turned away

By Nam Jong-young, staff writer

The international environmental NGO Greenpeace is responding actively after group members were barred from entering South Korea as part of an anti-nuclear campaign. The organization is currently planning to lodge a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) over the decision.

The Justice Ministry refused entry to three staffs attempting to enter South Korea on Monday, including Mario D'Amato, head of Greenpeace's East Asia chapter; Fung Ka Keung, regional development director for East Asia; and Rashid Kang, manager for Greenpeace Seoul. The three staff were detained at the airport at the request of the Justice Ministry which cited "potential threats to the public interest" at Incheon International Airport on Monday and send them back to Hong Kong. Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo only was allowed entry to South Korea. He told the Hankyoreh in a Tuesday interview that an official request had been made for an audience with the Justice Minister to hear an explanation.

Naidoo added that the group plans to raise the issue with the UNHRC if the Justice Minister fails to give a satisfactory explanation. Calling the ban a clear human rights violation, Naidoo noted that the UNHRC presented an opinion that recent legal measures taken by the Japanese government on Greenpeace activity violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Justice Ministry argued that the activists presented "potential threats to the public interest." Naidoo was scheduled to accompany them on a visit to Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon to discuss the city's plans to eliminate a nuclear power plant and on preparations for a mid-April campaign to tour current and scheduled nuclear power plant sites such as Samcheok, Gangwon province, on board the Greenpeace vessel the Esperanza.

Naidoo said the staffs did not come to South Korea to harm the public interest and voiced suspicions that the government is uncomfortable with Greenpeace's efforts to win support for an alternative to nuclear power. He also said personal information could be provided for the three people denied entry and called on the South Korean government to quickly remove them from the entry ban list before it damages the country's international image.

Previously, the government drew objections from environmental groups in the lead up to the Nuclear Security Summit when its refusal to admit No Nukes Asia Forum secretary-general Daisuke Sato was followed by the use of police vehicles to chase off a Japanese environmental activist who entered via Busan Harbor on Mar. 18.

The next question is whether it will admit the Esperanza, which is scheduled to arrive in South Korea in mid-April for an anti-nuclear campaign.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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