S Korean farmers forcibly evicted for US base: Amnesty

Hundreds of elderly farmers were forcibly evicted from their land to allow the expansion of a US military base near Seoul, Amnesty International said, condemning the move and calling for the farmers to be adequately compensated.

Some of the farmers -- mainly in their 60s and 70s -- suffered bloodied noses and several human-rights activists were detained during clashes with riot police earlier this month, the London-based human rights watchdog said in a statement posted on its Web site on Friday.

Police had come to evict the farmers from their homes in Daechuri village in Pyongtaek, 80km south of Seoul, it said.

"Most of these villagers are very old and it is distressing to hear of force being used against them," Rajiv Narayan, East Asia researcher at Amnesty International, said in the statement.

Ahn Jung-hoon, a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman, declined to comment because he said he has not seen the Amnesty International statement.

In December, South Korea's Land Expropriation Committee approved the seizure of the village so the US military can expand Camp Humphreys and move its entire command from the current headquarters in Yongsan Garrison, central Seoul.

Amnesty International also urged the government to release all those detained in the clashes and to meet with the evicted farmers to discuss compensation, noting that the financial settlements offered are not sufficient to replace the properties they were forced from.

"Any eviction on the current terms would leave the farmers in an extremely vulnerable position with few opportunities to make a living," Narayan said. "[The government] should ensure the villagers are not left homeless and give them reasonable compensation and alternative farming land close to their new homes."

About 29,500 US troops are based in South Korea, but their numbers are set to decline to 25,000 by 2008 as part of a worldwide realignment of US forces.

The two Koreas technically remain in a state of conflict, after the Korean War ended in a 1953 cease-fire.