Olympic Seoul's homeless victims

by Brian Dooley
CATHOLIC MP John Battle has accused the South Korean government of "creating a race of non-people" through a heartless eviction programme aimed at beautifying the country for the Olympics.
The Labour member for Leeds West slammed the slum clearance project during a visit to South Korea earlier this week. He claimed that 47,000 homes had been demolished and 27,000 left homeless over the last five years.
Mr Battle, a former chairman of the Leeds housing committee, said the most worrying aspect of the development programme in Seoul was the brutality involved and the government's refusal to rehouse those it had made homeless (Catholic Herald, July 1).
He was in Seoul as part of a seven-member team from the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights, and reported that evictions have recently stopped because of the Olympics, which begin today.
John Battle said that after the Olympics had been awarded to Seoul in 1983, the development of 218 designated poor areas, where more than 2.5 million people lived, was speeded up.