With no say in North Korea standoff, Guam rallies for peace
Island residents use media spotlight to discuss colonization
HAGÅTÑA, GUAM More than 100 Chamorro people and island residents went to the capital city Monday evening for a “People for Peace” rally in support of a movement to end the North Korean missile crisis threatening Guam.
Last week, North Korea announced plans to launch four intermediate-range ballistic rockets near the island by the middle of the month.
President Trump said the U.S. military is “locked and loaded” should the rogue nation attack.
Over the weekend, the president spoke with Eddie Calvo, governor of the U.S. territory, to reassure him and the island that the United States is behind the territory “1,000%.”
Monday’s peace rally, which was organized by the groups Independent Guåhan and Prutehi Litekyan: Save Ritidian, was to draw attention to a population of almost 163,000 lives that are at stake amid the escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea.
“It’s a great chance for us to assert that perhaps we want something more peaceful,” said Michael Bevacqua, chairman of Independent Guåhan. “Donald Trump says we’ll see what happens with Guam before we decide what to do, but that might make people in Montana or Alabama feel good, but that makes us feel a little bit scared.”
As attentions are fixated on the island, Bevacqua said, the rally serves as a chance to teach the international community about Guam and its struggles to decolonize.
“If we can’t directly affect the policies in Washington or Pyongyang, what we can do is change the perception of us,” he said.
Sabina Flores Perez of the Save Ritidian group said real peace lies with demilitarization on Guam. If the United States hadn’t colonized the island, North Korea wouldn’t aim its missiles toward Guam, she said.
“Our lands were taken away to establish the military bases. It’s these same bases that are making us a target because of the military community,” Perez said.
She said the missiles are “faced in our direction because of the U.S. presence.”
Perez referred to the Japanese occupation of Guam, relating the past event to the current missile crisis.
She said Japan was interested in taking over Guam during World War II only because it was a U.S. territory.
Siobhon McManus, 22, an English teacher, attended Monday’s rally to support peace and stress to the United States and North Korea that Guam doesn’t want to have a target on its back.
“We’re really tired of being caught in the crossfire of war not of our making, whether it was World War II or an impending nuclear threat that may or may not happen,” she said. “We’ve always been a peaceful people. We never asked for the conflicts that we’re the backdrop for.”
McManus noted that although the missile crisis has stirred anxiety on the island, the media attention from several international news outlets has given Guam’s residents a chance to show how their lives have been affected by colonization.
“Since the world kind of has a spotlight on us for now, it’s also been an opportunity for me as someone who cares about the indigenous people’s rights, being Chamorro and also Palauan and being someone from Micronesia that’s saying our needs as a people have been put on the back burner for a really long time,” she said. “And this is a rally for peace, but it’s also a rally to question whether or not peace is something we can achieve with the way we’re currently treated by all of these different empires.”
“We’re really tired of being caught in the crossfire of war not of our making, whether it was World War II or an impending nuclear threat that may or may not happen.” Siobhon McManus