Evictees from SKorea’s 1st Olympics recall harsh clearings
BUCHEON, Korea, Republic Of — When South Korea previously held the Olympics in 1988, Kim Paolo and some 150 other poor urban residents spent months that year hiding in huge graves of their own making.
They were the last among thousands ousted from host city Seoul after losing years-long, pre-Olympic battles against officials, police, construction workers and hired thugs. A massive effort to beautify the capital had razed hundreds of poor neighbourhoods to make way for new high-rise buildings. In violent clashes between residents and police, several died and hundreds were injured.
In Bucheon, just west of Seoul, a trio of long pits in the ground was all the living space Kim and others could wrestle out of city officials. With help of the Roman Catholic Church and donations from well-wishers, those evicted had purchased a small, deserted piece of land that abutted a highway at the mouth of the capital.
But as soon as they set up makeshift tents in their new holes — in freezing January — Bucheon officials sent dozens of workers to tear them down.