SOUTH KOREAN STATE TERROR AGAINST WORKERS

Yesterday's Kyunghyang Shinmun reported the following about last weekend's STATE TERROR in Busan:

10,000 Participants of ‘Hope Bus’ Forcibly Dispersed by Police..

Harmful tear gas and batons used against peaceful protestors

About 10,000 citizens from around the country, albeit police estimates at 7,000, aboard a second wave of 'Hope Bus' on Saturday paid a visit to Youngdo Shipbuilding Yard, Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction (HHIC) Busan.

This visit was aimed at cheering up Kim Jin-sook, who is staging a protest against the HHIC's sacking of workers alone high up on a Crane No. 85 and to pep up fired workers of the HHIC simultaneously .

However, while the police forcibly tried to disperse protestors using tear-causing gas and water cannons, and apprehended 50 and wounded 100, this stirred up a controversy that the crackdown was too forceful and violent.

Participants of Hope Bus held a cultural festival at Busan Station at 7 o'clock pm Saturday and marched towards Youngdo Shipbuilding Yard, but were thwarted by the police 700 meters ahead of the Yard.

Protestors made a demand of the police to secure a peaceful demonstration to reach to meet Kim Jin-sook in person, but the police issued an order of dispersal instead.

In the wee hours of Sunday, when the protestors marched towards a wall set by the police, the police began to fire tear-causing solutions.

Upon police firing of tear gas, Lee Jung-hee, Leader of Democratic Labor Party, blacked out and was taken to Busan University Hospital for treatment.

The police afterwards shot water cannons with tear-causing solutions at the protestors, wielded shields and batons to disperse the protestors.

In the process, 50 protestors including Shim Sang-jung, former leader of Progressive New Party, and Lee Gwang-seok, Chairman of National Farmers Federation, were apprehended and quite a number of them were wounded.

Woo Seok-gyoon, Policy Director of Health and Medical Group Association, said, "A great number of the wounded got chemical burns causing blisters. Considering the symptoms, the tear-causing solution seems to be the same kind that was used at the crackdown at Ssangyong Motors in 2009."

Woo added, "At that time, the International Cancer Research Center defined the methylenechloride solution contained in the tear-causing solution as carcinogenic and a research team at Harvard University announced that CS gas is a kind of 'toxic chemical weapons'."

About 2,000 protestors out of the whole dispersed themselves after staging, for a while, a sit-in demanding retraction of staff curtailment and criticizing forcible crackdown by the police.

However, their demand for a face-to-face meeting with Kim Jin-sook did not materialize, who is now a symbol of protest in HHIC's massive personnel curtailment.

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