Violent clashes between demonstrators and riot police in Seoul's Yeoido district in front of the National Assembly are taking a turn for the worse these days, portraying a state of lawlessness in this country to worldwide TV audiences. Citizens are losing their confidence in democratic rule as Korea's international credibility plummets daily.
Farmers and other groups advocating political and social causes come to the Assembly square ostensibly to send messages to lawmakers inside the legislative building. After a period of tense confrontation, the demonstrators charge toward the triple lines of police cordons wielding long steel pipes and hurling rocks.
Here and there, police troopers take relentless beatings from the protesters before they move onto the offensive, using their own batons that are twice as long as the usual clubs, and dragging whoever they catch in their counterattack into police buses.
Fleeing demonstrators indiscriminately set fire to police vehicles, sending flames into the sky. Many injuries occur on both sides, with the police usually announcing a much larger number of casualties from the uniformed ranks than the demonstrators.
Dozens of young men suffering burns, cuts and broken limbs and skulls are taken to the National Police Hospital, while the captured protesters are escorted to police stations to face various criminal charges, as warranted by the videotape evidence.
These little wars have become a routine whenever Korea's National Assembly is in session. Television footage of the battles, the barbaric beatings, the flames and thick smoke from the burning police buses, the blasts of the tear gas grenades and the spouting of water guns are played repeatedly by CNN and the BBC between scenes of car bomb attacks in Baghdad, Jerusalem and elsewhere.
Dismayed citizens are asking themselves why we can't stop this? Democracy does not deserve this lawlessness. The authorities certainly have enough manpower and equipment to maintain security around the legislative building. They just lack the will to do the job.
But what are they afraid of? Is it the possibility of fatalities that could cause great uproar in society and political circles and would eventually cost some top police officers their jobs? Or, have they simply not received instructions from the highest office?
President Roh Moo-hyun must now issue an executive order to stop this violence by demonstrators, be they farmers, workers or members of civic groups opposing the dispatch of troops to Iraq or fighting against the building of a nuclear waste disposal facility in their hometown.
The police must enforce the order by all available means. They can prevent the gathering of demonstrators in Yeouido by keeping watch at strategic points. Anyone bringing weapons of mass protest, such as steel bars, parts of petrol bombs and slings to demonstrations should be indicted and punished.
Already, some frustrated citizens are suggesting that the police should cooperate with the military if the civilian security force is not strong enough to ensure peaceful order in our society.
However, this is not an acceptable idea. We believe the National Police alone can accomplish the mission, but only if the administration shows leadership and has the determination to do it.
2004.02.14
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