Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
June 1, 2015
Women’s walk across DMZ denied; they crossed on bus
By Eric Talmadge
The Associated Press
ORASAN STATION, South Korea — Inter-
national women activists including Gloria
Steinem and two Nobel Peace laureates were
denied an attempt to walk across the Demilitarized Zone
(DMZ) dividing North and South Korea, but were allowed
to cross by bus and complete what one of them called a
landmark peace event.
The group of 30 women from 15 countries made a final
appeal to authorities on both sides to allow them to walk
across the demarcation line, but were turned down. The
North allowed a South Korean bus to cross the
demarcation line to pick them up on the North side of the
DMZ and transport them over the border to South Korea.
United Nations Command officials met the group inside
the DMZ after they crossed the demarcation line, and
allowed them to march again after the final checkpoint on
the southern side.
“We were able to be citizen diplomats,” said Steinem,
the 81-year-old feminism pioneer and author. “We are
feeling very, very positive. We have received an enormous
amount of support,” she said after passing through South
Korean immigration.
The women walked, carried banners, and sang on the
North Korean side of the first checkpoint leading into the
DMZ. They were then met by a large contingent of media
on the South side.
The Koreas have remained divided since the 1950-1953
Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. The
DMZ that divides them is one of the most heavily fortified
borders in the world. Authorities on both sides said they
could not guarantee the safety of the women had they
walked across.
Organizer Christine Ahn, a Korean-American peace
activist, said the group had initially wanted to walk
q
D
Rohingya seek better life in
Malaysia, but reality is stark
Continued from page 3
He worries most about
his children. The younger
two attend a community
school for Rohingya refu-
gees funded by a local
Muslim group. They learn
the
Malay
language,
Islamic studies, and other
subjects. His 11-year-old
son wants to be a doctor
and youngest daughter a
professor, he said.
Hamid and his family
have put in for resettle-
ment in the U.S. or a third
country
through
the
UNHCR, but haven’t heard
anything back. He holds
out hope that his children
might be granted citizen-
ship in Malaysia.
“I have spent half of my
life here. I love Malaysia,
but after 25 years, what do
I get? It’s OK for me, I am
growing old, but what
about my children? I don’t
want them to suffer like
me,” he said. “Our hope
now is to go to America
where they can be citizens
and get higher education.”
Hamid’s
views
are
echoed by many Rohingya
families in Malaysia, who
initially didn’t view reset-
tlement as an option but
now see it as the only way
for their children to escape
an impoverished future.
Globally, only 80,000
refugees are resettled each
year, with the U.S. taking
about 70 percent of them.
Refugees from Myanmar
make up the largest group,
followed by Iraq, Congo,
and Somalia. But many of
those from Myanmar are
ethnic Chins who are
Christians and English-
speaking.
Apart from the U.S.,
most other countries are
not eager to take in
Rohingya Muslims amid
concerns that they could
not integrate successfully
because of religious values,
community structures, and
language
issues,
said
Towle of the UNHCR.
“Rohingya have not
[been]
featured
very
significantly in numbers in
resettlement
programs
apart from the last few
years, but the numbers are
increasing,” he said.
Towle urged Malaysia to
consider giving Rohingya
protected status and work
permits, which could help
plug gaps in the workforce.
“If you allow people who
are going to be here anyway
the right to work, you will
flush them out of the gray
economy and they will be
more dignified contributors
to Malaysia,” he said.
But Malaysia fears that
allowing refugees to stay
permanently
will
just
encourage more to come.
Hamid said his family
cried when they watched
scenes of the scrawny
Rohingya boat people on
television. He said he has
told his relatives in Myan-
mar not to come to
Malaysia, mainly because
of the risks of the sea
journey and mistreatment
by traffickers.
“Many people have died
at sea due to being beaten,
starvation, or illness. It’s
suicidal to come here,” he
said. “It’s better to die in
your homeland than at
sea.”
through the symbolic truce village of Panmunjom, where
the armistice was signed. Still, she said the crossing itself
was a success and a “historic event” despite “governments
setting boundaries.”
Some members of the group expressed disappointment
that the walk inside the DMZ was denied. But Ahn said
she was satisfied that they were able to meet with North
Korean women during their several-day stay in
Pyongyang and to cross through the DMZ, which is rarely
allowed in any form to civilians.
Ahn said the group went to the two Koreas to call for an
end to hostilities on the Korean Peninsula, push for a
reunification of families divided by the war, and promote
dialogue between the two enemies.
International activists march to Imjingak Pavilion along the military
wire fences near the border village of Panmunjom, in Paju, north of
Seoul, South Korea. The activists were denied an attempt to walk
across the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea,
but were allowed to cross by bus. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)