[KS] Egypt and Gwangju 1980

[george katsiaficas]

Dear all,

First, congratulations Ed on your recovery! Hope we get a chance to
celebrate in the not too distant future.

Yes, 4.19 comes to mind, as do many other People Power uprisings.
I am especially struck by parallels with Korea's 1987 June Uprising, when
for 19 consecutive days, hundreds of thousands of people illegally went into
the streets and battled tens of thousands of riot police to a standstill. On
June 29, the military dictatorship finally capitulated to the opposition¹s
demands to hold direct presidential elections, thereby ending 26 years of
military rule. 
 
As in Egypt on February 11, 2011, the man who made the announcement in Seoul
on June 29, 1987 was none other than the dictatorship¹s No. 2 leader: Roh
Tae-woo, who went on to become the country¹s new president after elections
marked by both a bitter split between rival progressive candidates and
widespread allegations of ballot tampering. People¹s high expectations and
optimism after the military was forced to grant elections turned into bitter
disappointment. Throughout the country, new massive mobilizations were
organized, during which more than a dozen young people committed suicide to
spur forward the movement for change.
 
Like Suleiman, Roh was a long-time US asset with ties to a list of nefarious
deeds. In 1996, Roh and his predecessor Chun Doo-hwan were convicted of high
crimes, sent to prison, and ultimately ordered to return hundreds of
millions of dollars they had illegally garnered. (Roh eventually returned
around $300 million; Chun deceitfully pleaded poverty and, although thereby
dishonored, he absconded with even more than that amount of Korea¹s wealth.)
 
While Roh was never linked to any direct act of sadism, Suleiman is known to
have personally participated in the torture of CIA rendered terrorist
suspects. As ³the CIA¹s Man in Cairo,² he helped design and implement the
American rendition program through which dozens of suspected terrorists were
kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured. Suleiman took a personal hand in the
torture of Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib. In his memoirs, Habib recounted
one torture session of electric shocks, broken fingers and being hung from
meat hooks that culminated in being slapped so hard that his blindfold flew
off‹-revealing Suleiman as the purveyor of the violence.

While Habib was innocent, another rendered suspect, Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi,
confessed to participation in training anti-US fighters and famously
asserted under torture that ties existed between al-Queda and Saddam¹s
government in Iraq. This lie became one of Colin Powell¹s most significant
assertions to the UN Security Council when the US convinced much of the
world to attack Iraq. When al-Libi later recanted and threatened to expose
his lie, he ³committed suicide² in a Libyan prison‹coincidentally at the
same time as Suleiman made his first ever visit to Tripoli.

As we saw the post-World War 2 "Korean Model" applied by Bush 2 to occupied
Iraq, so it seems that Korea's democratization might hold possible lessons
for Egypt.

Will the blood of the 300 murdered citizens in Egypt, like the martyrs of
Gwangju, water the tree of liberty? Or will their sacrifice grease the
wheels of US banks and global corporations as they rush to replace "crony
capitalism" with ever more profitable arenas for wealthy investors?

No one can anticipate the outcome of what has been set in motion, but
historical antecedents do provide insight into possible outcomes.

Frank: for more about these uprisings and their interconnections, my
two-volume book, Asia's Unknown Uprisings, is now at the publishers.

Thanks

George


> From: ejbaker <ejbaker at fas.harvard.edu>
> Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
> Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2011 10:05:12 +0900
> To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
> Subject: Re: [KS] Egypt and Gwangju 1980
> 
> Dear George,
> 
> There has  been little comment along this line and I'm glad to see your piece.
> But how come you didn't mention 4.19 which overthrew Syngman Rhee in April,
> 1960.
> 
> I'm rapidly recovering and we'll head for home on Feb 16.
> 
> Yours,
> 
> Ed
> 
> 
> On Feb 11, 2011, at 11:34 PM, george katsiaficas wrote:
> 
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> Please check the link for a connection drawn between Gwangju 1980 and Egypt
>> today.
>> 
>> http://213.158.162.45/~egyptian/index.php?action=news&id=14994&title=The%20E
>> ros%20effect%20comes%20to%20Cairo
>> 
>> George 
>> 
> 
>