In May last year, the student parliament decided with a clear majority to permanently loan the Peace Statue in order to jointly develop a culture of remembrance for women and children affected by sexual violence in times of war. During the Asia-Pacific War, women and girls in at least 14 Asia-Pacific countries were subjected to massive sexual violence by the Japanese military. Unfortunately, the history of sexual violence in armed conflicts repeats itself over and over again. Such a memorial is therefore extremely important at the moment.

Yesterday was a feminist day of struggle and here, too, attention was drawn to the sexualized violence in Iran, reference was made to the feminist struggles of the Kurds and the sexualized violence that is currently happening in Ukraine was addressed. The University of Kassel even organized its own workshops on recognizing and preventing sexualized violence. Fights against sexualised violence and for the rights of women are international, common struggles. We deeply regret that one day after this international feminist day of struggle, the management of the university decided to remove a memorial to the victims of sexualised violence.

In the past, the university management unilaterally decided to limit the loan. The Korea Association only learned indirectly on February 28 that the statue was to be dismantled in the first week of March. We then sought direct dialogue with the university to negotiate a later date when we would have found an alternative permanent location for 'Nujin'. Non-consensual dismantling should be prevented. Because this would show again how an institution buckles under pressure from the Japanese government. We also wanted to protect survivors in Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines from being re-traumatized by images of the statue in a dark and cold storage location. We received verbal confirmation from the Presidium that they would comply with our request. We were all the more shocked that the university management now unilaterally had 'Nujin' cleared without consent or consultation.

We are dismayed that the management of the University of Kassel is not interested in cooperation in this form, but is demonstrating their power by dismantling. This is in contrast to the fact that the university management published a statement a few days ago in which it announced that it would end a training cooperation with armaments companies. We strongly question how anti-militaristic the intentions of the university management really are.

Now there is a vacancy in the campus garden. We hope that this will be preserved to show that a feminist, anti-militarist, internationalist monument and memorial has been removed here.