We share in the sadness at the death of Mr. Lee Kyung-hae

Here in Cancun, we came up with a statement that expresses our feelings on the death of Lee Kyung-hae.

We share in the sadness at the death of Mr. Lee Kyung-hae, the former president of the Korean Advanced Farmers Federation, who took his life in Cancun, Mexico, during protests against the Fifth WTO Ministerial. Lee Kyung-hae ended his own life on a barricade that prevented thousands of campesinos and small farmers from around the world from delivering their message to the WTO negotiators.

For Lee Kyung-hae, this was part of a long struggle. When he held a lone protest outside the WTO Secretariat in Geneva in February, he declared “Reaching to my conclusion now here in Geneva, at the front gate at the WTO, I am crying out the words to you that have been boiling for so long a time in my body: For whom do you negotiate now? For the people or for yourselves?”*

His death in Cancun is a reminder that the negotiations taking place on the other side of the barricades are not simply about texts and technical issues, but involve matters of life and death that impact on the livelihoods of millions of people around the world. Greenpeace joined the march in solidarity with Via Campesina, an organisation with whom we have worked for years promoting sustainable agriculture.

*This quote is from a paper that Mr. Lee was distributing here in Cancun before his death.