Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Women Cross the DMZ protest anti DPRK Vancouver Meeting “A naval blockade is not diplomacy,




Tim Shorrock Report in Nation

“We feel it’s really important to hold these foreign ministers to account,” Christine Ahn, the founder and international coordinator of Women Cross DMZ, the prime mover behind the “Vancouver Women’s Forum,” told The Nation. 

“The countries that sent soldiers, doctors, and nurses to Korea as part of the US-controlled UN Command also have a responsibility to finally end the Korean War.”

“A naval blockade is not diplomacy,” added Ewa Eriksson-Fortier, a Swedish member of Women Cross DMZ who spent 30 years with the International Red Cross, including two years in 2008 and 2009 as the Head of Country Delegation in Pyongyang. Many communities in North Korea, Eriksson-Fortier said, “still basically live without proper water and sanitation.” 



The new UN sanctions, particularly the restrictions on oil shipments, will impact those communities by limiting their ability to transport food, take people to hospitals, and use machinery needed to dig out river beds flooded with mud and silt caused by deforestation, she said.

“I see the oil embargo as extremely worrying,” she said in an interview from Vancouver. “Our task is to have a broad dialogue with different countries with a history in Korea.” She added, “I believe the Canadian government is sincere in their intent to promote a peaceful resolution.” Sweden, which with Switzerland runs the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission created in 1953 to supervise the armistice, also sent a deputy foreign minister to Canada.

SOURCE: https://www.thenation.com/article/womens-peace-groups-in-vancouver-press-for-korea-negotiations/





No comments: