Welcome to BASE21

Jeong Gue-sun
President of FWR (Association for Foreign Workers Human Rights in Pusan)

This year, which brought in the noisy new millenium, has come to end now. The change of year has not important meaning in one's whole life, but is a moment for reflection and planning their life.
Ibu Sulami, thhe brightest person of this year, was awarded the 'Justice and Peace Prize' in Seoul, on the 18th of December. Ibu Sulami is 74 years old, and was President of the 'Institute for Truth of Slaugter in 1965 and 1966 in Indonesia'. She has been hard on the fact-finding trail for evidence against the Suharto regime, which has slaughtered more than 500,000 Indonesians for excluding their political opponents.
I can only guess how difficult it has been for her and her comrades' efforts against the Suharto regime, that havee been continued over the paast 32 years. And we believe they were spiritual props for Indonesians in thhe struggle fofor democracy in Indonesia.
'Dulbit-hoe'(Association of the Right in the Field) was awaded the prize, organized for the memorial of Tji Hak-sun, who fought for the democracy of Korea during its' military dictatorship. A person who had fought for democracy and peace in the Third World, was awarded the 'Justice and Peace Prize' and give $US 10,000 in funding for support and solidarity with their activities.
We Koreans remember Park Jung-hee's military dictatorship since 1961 and the 'Kwangju uprising' which had uncovered much death and bloodshed by the military in 1980, like what happened in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1965. So Koreans have love and solidarity with the activists who have fought hard for their democracy.
The representative word of the 20 Century is 'modernization' which has brought us material richness in one hand and increasing inequality between persons and person, and nature on the other.
During the process of modernization so many inhuman things haavee been rationalized. With war and dictatorship and in the name of structure (capitalism or socialism) freedom and human rights have been violated. The result being that, confidence and love between peoples has been changed to untrust and competition now. However, the persons who have fought hard for real freedom and human rights against inrationalization have made our future hopeful.
Now I hope the new millenium will move toward 'peace and solidarity', together with humans respecting nature away from the dark tunnel of modernization.