South Korean workers, students clash with police

Associated Press
November 10, 2003
 

SEOUL, South Korea -- Firebombs lit up the evening sky in Seoul on Sunday as labor activists and students battled riot police in one of the most violent protests in years. Dozens of students and workers were injured, witnesses said.

Police hauled away dozens of workers and students bleeding from their heads, while protesters lobbed hundreds of firebombs.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which organized Sunday's protest, said at least 43 workers were hospitalized, one of them unconscious. South Korean news agency Yonhap said police were reporting 16 officers were injured.

In one clash, hundreds of police cornered a score of students in an alley and pummeled them with plastic shields and batons. Television footage showed police stomping on protesters sprawled on the pavement.

As it grew dark, hundreds of students and workers regrouped in an eight-lane boulevard and its side alleys, chanting: "(President) Roh Moo-hyun, stop oppressing workers!"

A crowd of protesters, estimated by police at 35,000 and by the labor confederation at 100,000, rallied in central Seoul earlier Sunday to protest damage lawsuits that managers have filed against union leaders accused of staging illegal strikes.