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When he died after several hours in a hospital, some protesters proclaimed him a martyr. Outside the hospital where he died, sympathisers held candlelit vigils. Below the security fence where he stabbed himself, Italian activists splattered themselves with red paint and shouted the slogan that Lee had made his own: "The WTO kills farmers." During international solidarity rallies over the weekend, Cancun echoed with thousands of voices, chanting: "We are all Lee, we are all Lee."
But who was Lee Kyung-hae, and why did he kill himself? In the aftermath of the failed WTO negotiations, these questions are likely to absorb the anti-globalisation activists who claim he was a martyr in their "victory", the heavyweights of world trade, who would like the fiery Korean to be dismissed as a nationalist showman with psychological problems, and the family and friends who are mourning the man who died only weeks before he was due to give away his daughter's hand in marriage.
The search for an answer must start on the mountain slopes near Jangsu, a town of 30,000 farming households in North Cholla Province, about four hours' drive south of Seoul. This is the land where Lee attempted to realise an idealistic vision of a modern, model farm. It is where he buried his wife. And it is where he experienced the pain of losing a farm because of a sudden opening of markets to foreign trade http://www.guardian.co.uk/wto/article/0,2763,1042865,00.html
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