SPECIAL REPORT
Korean Farmer Takes Own Life Amid Protests in Cancun
September 10, 2003 http://www.foodfirst.org/wto/reports/2003-09-10FF.php 

Today in Cancun, Kyung Hae Lee, a 56-year old South Korean farmer, died after
stabbing himself in protest of the World Trade Organization (WTO), a global
trading institution that has been leaving farmers hopeless and desperate, and
silently killing them the world over.

Lee was among the 120 Korean farmers who courageously rammed a dragon
structure into the chain-linked fence barricade heavily armed with police and
military separating civil society from the official trade meeting. After the
barricade fell, Lee climbed to the top and stabbed himself in the chest. He
was rushed to the hospital and died soon after.

Lee's sacrifice underscores the urgent plight he and small farmers around the
world face under the current negotiations on agriculture. "He believes that
if the negotiations go through, it will be the death of the Korean farmer,"
said a 
colleague with the Korea Peoples' Solidarity Movement. Lee joined the
thousands of farmers who traveled continents to protest the dead end that the
WTO presents, signaling to the rest of the world that he was willing to
sacrifice his own life--thousands of miles away from his family and his
people--instead of silently suffocating under the harsh rules of the WTO.

His death today falls symbolically on Chusok, one of the largest national
Korean holidays where family and friends gather to give thanks to their
ancestors for the food they have harvested.


Focus on the Global South (FOCUS)
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