Civic activists in Germany are planning to file an injunction against the city of Berlin over a removal order for a statue of a girl symbolizing Korean victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery.
Yonhap News, citing informed local sources, reported that the injunction application will be filed on Monday by Korea Verband with Berlin's administrative court.
The Germany-based organization and its supporters set up the statue, formally called "The Statue of Peace," in a public place in Berlin's Mitte district last month to draw international attention to the plight of sexual slavery victims during World War II.
But nine days after its unveiling ceremony, the Mitte district office ordered the group to remove the statue by October 14, after the Japanese government expressed regrets over its installation.
The legal battle to protect the statue came amid an ongoing public petition campaign opposing the removal order.
If the injunction application is approved, a formal hearing will ensue, although it will take considerable time before the court makes its final judgment.
The Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, a Seoul-based advocacy group, has also sent a letter to the United Nations' special rapporteurs, arguing that any attempt to remove the statue is a challenge to the U.N.'s efforts to rewrite human rights norms by viewing violence against women as a universal rights issue.
<Photo: Yonhap News>
