By
Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Tens of thousands of anti-globalization demonstrators
confronted police in Seoul and other cities, protesting
a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between Korea and
the United States. It caused severe disruption in
downtown traffic, angering citizens.
However, clashes were sporadic and none of them
escalated to the violence of the anti-FTA rallies last
week, which resulted in dozens of injuries and severe
property damage.
The police, who arrested more than 40 people after
last week's rally, had outlawed the anti-globalization
rallies Wednesday, organized by farmers and labor
unionists, and promised swift punishment for those
causing destructive action.
The rallies, organized by the ``Korean Alliance
Against the Korea-U.S. FTA,'' representing about 300
labor unions and civic groups, and the Korean
Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), were held in eight
cities, including Seoul, Pusan, Taegu, Kwangju, Inchon
and Cheju.
The police deployed more than 50,000 men to the rally
sites nationwide. This includes some 10,000 police
officers in Seoul who used buses to barricade city hall
and its adjacent grass square to prevent the crowd from
gathering.
However, the airtight blockade did not discourage
hundreds of angry, head-banded demonstrators from
clogging some streets of downtown Seoul, as they
confronted shield-wielding policemen. Police detained
nine farmers who refused an order to leave the City Hall
Plaza.
About 400 farmers marched down the streets of Ulchiro
and Myong-dong, downtown Seoul, after the police blocked
them from holding their planned rally in front of Seoul
Station.
Unionists from the KCTU, one of the country's two
flagship labor unions, also held a rally in Taehangno,
which turned out about 250 people. Another 150 unionists
held a separate rally in Okin-dong, downtown Seoul.
About 10,000 organized farmers had been planning to
gather in Seoul for the anti-FTA rallies. However, with
police blocking the major tollgates on highways, not
many of them succeeded in reaching the nation's capital.
The Korean anti-FTA alliance had expected 120,000
people to participate in yesterday's rallies nationwide.
The police believe the turnout was much less.
It was a quieter situation in Kwangju, where the
demonstrations were most extreme last week, with several
hundred farmers and unionists holding peaceful marches
calling on the government to withdraw from talks with
the U.S. over the free trade accord.
In the demonstrations held last Wednesday,
demonstrators in Kwangju wielded rocks, steel pipes, and
flaming cans as they attempted to enter the city hall
building. Riot police put up barricades and fought back
with riot cannons, forcing the protestors to disperse,
with the clash leaving more than 60 injured.