Dear Friends,
We’re sending you following appeal made by Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) in South Korea. We urge you to draw your attention and to send protest letter to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency.
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Desk
Asian Human Rights Commission
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On April 10, over 300 members of the Daewoo Motors Workers Union, with their lawyer holding a copy of court order, tried to enter their union office located within the Pupyong Plant of the Daewoo Motors in Incheon.
When they arrived at the South Gate, they were met by some 500-strong riot police in full gear. Soon the rank of the riot police thickened to around 1,500.
The Carnage
What ensued for about three hours was a carnival of blood thirsty violence and total disregard and disdain for law, legal rights, and human rights by the government of a Nobel Peace Award laureate president.
At the “end” of the “incident”-filled day, 14 unionists were hospitalized for various heavy injuries, such as, broken nose, broken rib, broken bones in hands, and partial paralysis. But, virtually all of the unionists beaten up in varying degrees.
The unionists trying to go to their union office was stopped some 200 meters from the South Gate around two o’clock in the afternoon by some 500 riot police. Their lawyer from the Korean Metal Workers Federation read out to the riot police the ruling of the court and warned that the obstruction of the execution of the court ruling by was against the law and constituted a crime.
According to a statement issued by the Association of Lawyers for Democratic Society on April 12, a Commander of the Pupyong Police Station, who was in charge of the riot police which “met” the unionists, spat out “the government is above the law”.
For a time there was a “lull” of some sorts filled mainly by shouting and shoving by the protesting unionists. This lasted for about one and a half hours. The scene subsided a little when four National Assemblymen arrived to learn about the situation. After making some enquiries as to why the riot police was blocking the unionists going to their office, they left the scene to put their questions to the Commander of the Pupyong Police Station.
Following the departure of the National Assemblymen, the riot police began to show their impatience and began beating the unionists who stood up to them. The rank of unionists decided to take their shirts off and lie down on the street to show that they did not mean to do anything but to go to their office.
But, a command was delivered to the riot police on the scene to clear away the unionist. This was the beginning of the carnage. Riot police began the charge against workers — slashed and beat down with their long batons and hammered down their shields on the unionists lying on the street. Defenceless unionists began to get back on their feet and tried to flee, but, the riot police chased after them, dragging them down with shower of indiscriminate beating.
At the end of 30 minutes of rampage, which seemed to last forever, bodies were strewn across the street, many with blood spewing out of their heads and different parts of their bodies. One unionist had lung pierced by a broken rib. Another was beaten on the head and face, ending up with a broken nose and skin around the eye torn, now facing a risk of losing his sight due to excessive hemorrhage. Another could not stop vomiting because of the barrage of beating he received. Another could not talk properly due to heavy stuttering after the shock of battering he had received.
A total of 43 unionists were taken to hospital by “119 emergency relief ambulance brigade” which arrived on the scene. (Currently [as of April 13], 24 unionists still hospitalized to receive medical treatment.) To boot, 21 unionists were “arrested” and taken away by police, only released after “serving out” 48 hours of mandatory detention for questioning. Most of them were in need of medical treatment for their injuries.
Unionists “Banned” from Entering Their Office
The “incident” occurred as unionists tried to enter the union office. Their office was closed down by the management following the forcible removal of the striking workers by the riot police on February 19, 2001. Since then, the management completely closed off the union office near the South Gate of the Pupyong Plant. Instead, it designated a small building near the West Gate.
The new “union office” — located within the plant compound — however, is not accessible from within the compound, as it is totally surrounded by a newly erected three-meter high iron-sheet wall. Anyone wanting to enter the “union office” would have to leave the plant compound through the West Gate and go through a fox-hole created at the compound wall to get to the building. But, any worker working in the Plant, in order to go to the union office, would have to obtain a leave-pass to leave the company ground during the work hours.
The union, whose leadership and around 500 members who have been dismissed due to the retrenchment order on February 17 are “camping out” at the Sangok Cathedral near the plant, does not recognize the space designated by the management as its office. The “original” union office near the South Gate, close to the path of workers and the main canteen of the plant — easily accessible by workers — is currently shut off by the management.
The Pupyong Plant, ever since the work resumed on March 7, has become a “martial law” area, with more than 2,000 riot police stationed throughout the compound. Each of the gates to the plant compound is “guarded” by the riot police and barricaded by container boxes.
On March 7, the union filed for a court injunction against the obstruction of union activities and entry to the union office (the one which is recognized by the union). The Incheon District Court, on April 6, delivered its ruling ordering that “a. the members of the plaintiff union entering the office of the plaintiff to conduct legitimate union activities; b. the members of industrial federation or national confederation to which the plaintiff belongs entering the office of the plaintiff to provide support for the legitimate union activities; should not be obstructed.” The court ordered the court bailiff to make the intent of its ruling and order public through appropriate means.
In the course of the court hearing, the lawyers for the defendant (the Daewoo Motors management) argued that the application by the plaintiff should be dismissed as there is no feasible likelihood of union activity within legitimate and reasonable boundary and that there may arise various untoward incidents. The defendant’s lawyers further argued that, in case the application of the plaintiff were to be granted, the court order should put a limit to the number of people who would be allowed to enter the union office, and limit the time in which the entry would be allowed. More specifically, the defendant requested the court to limit entry to the union office to the union officers located in the Pupyong Plant branch of the union, disallowing entry by workers dismissed by retrenchment, union members from other union branches, and members of the industrial federation (KMWF) or the national confederation (KCTU). Furthermore, the defendant demanded that the entry to the union office should only be allowed within work hours, from 8 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon. The defendant’s arguments and claims were dismissed by the court which upheld the application of the union.
While the court order was posted on 4 locations in the Pupyong Plant by the court bailiff, the management and the police remained “resolute” in blocking the union members and leaders from entering the union office. When the union members were blocked by the riot police the union lawyer, Attorney Park Hoon (who represented the union at the court hearing), identified himself as a lawyer at the service of the union and read out the ruling of the court repeatedly, and warned the police that its actions were against the law.
When the union members took their shirts off and lied down on the street in protest, the lawyer Park Hoon also joined them. When the police began its violence, Attorney Park was also subjected to brutal beating. Because of kicks and beatings he received on his face, his eye-glasses were broken, causing severe cuts. He complained of inability to breath due to numerous hits he had taken on his body. And he is reported to have fractures in his pelvic bone. He is currently hospitalized, unable to walk on his own due to pain, receiving medical treatment.
In a statement, the Association of Lawyers for Democratic Society describing the police action as “barbaric”, denounced, “it cannot be referred to as police carrying out public authority as it is no different from criminal gangsters”. It went on the note that “even during the days of military regimes of the past when human rights were trampled on, we have not heard of police beating up and causing injury to a lawyer who was carrying out his obligation”. The Korean Bar Association, on April 12, also issued a statement protesting the behavior of the police, especially, the total disregard shown to the court order and a law practitioner.
The Public Outrage – the People Demand!
When the scene of the police atrocity, captured on video, was made public, even some police officers expressed deep shame. One police officer, responsible for keeping a watch on the KCTU headquarters, said, “I am totally speechless”.
The KCTU produced 1,000 copies of the video to distribute to the civil society organizations and member unions. The KCTU web page where a digital video file of the carnage is can be seen was flood with concerned citizens. For three days, from April 11 to 13, the KCTU web page recorded a total of some 3 million clicks, with the highest on April 13 with more than one and a half million visitors. This caused, at different times, technical difficulties in accessing the KCTU web page.
The KCTU and its affiliates and members plan to organize public video viewing campaign, setting up stalls with video and television monitors on major streets in large city centers. The KCTU has presented many civil organizations, civil society organizations, and even political parties and the National Assembly the video. In a statement on April 13, the KCTU invited President Kim Dae Jung to personally view the police violence captured on the video and see for himself whether his police’s “work” was befitting a president who is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Condemnations and protest statements, expressing outrage and calling on the government to address the cause of the incident, were issued by many different organizations: major law practitioners organizations, such as, the Korean Bar Association, the Association of Lawyers for Democratic Society, the major civil society and civil rights organizations, such as, the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), and major civic organization like the YMCA, and major human rights organizations, such as, the Sarangbang Human Rights Group. Some of these organizations have set up an ad hoc investigation committee on the situation. Some of the political parties and National Assemblymen are also calling for the establishment of a special parliamentary body to investigate the situation.
On the other hand, the Korean Employers Federation (KEF), the industrial relations counterpart to the KCTU, in a document distributed on April 13 to its members, declared the police action which led to savage attack on workers as “legitimate execution of law and order”.
The incident prompted the KCTU to highlight and lament the very insensitivity the whole society has developed under the numbing impact the “economic crisis” and government-driven structural adjustment. The commonly felt “urgency” to crawl out of the “crisis” — at what ever the cost (the sacrifice of workers) — encouraged by the government, has blinded the society and people to the key principles and values the people have struggled and strived for over last decades. This has resulted in command-driven restructuring, unquestioning “dependence” on the government, turning a blind eye to the government’s heavy-handed treatment of anyone who oppose or become victim of “unavoidable” government-led restructuring programme.
For example, in the aftermath of the retrenchment dismissal of 1,750 workers by the Daewoo Motors (on February 16), a cumulative total (as of March 13) of 671 workers who took part in various protest actions were arrested by police, resulting in charges being laid against 100 persons — 20 of them ordered to be held in remand while the rest will face trial with being held.
The KCTU was moved to declare in its April 14 statement that, “We are saddened to suddenly discover that all the progress and achievement in democracy and human rights, won by the people through many decades of struggle against dictatorial regimes and system, have been destroyed” while the whole society was seized by a “crisis” mentality.
The outburst of public outcry is expected to rise and gain momentum. The KCTU’s protest rally on April 14 in Pupyong, dubbed “Resolution Rally Calling for the Resignation of the Government of the President Kim Dae Jung for its Responsibility in Police Violence and Massive Retrenchment Dismissal”, brought out more than 3,000 people in Incheon area.
On April 17, the KCTU will formally file a legal action against the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency, Chief Commander of the Incheon Metropolitan City Police, Commander of Pupyong Police Station, and the field commanders of the police responsible for the April 10 incident for abuse of authority, obstruction of the execution of a legal order, and manslaughter.
The KCTU, in its April 14 statement, demanded President Kim Dae Jung to apologize to the people for violence against Daewoo Motors unionists and to personally visit the hospitalized workers. It demanded the immediate dismissal and criminal action against the Chief of Police and the release of all the arrested members of the Daewoo Motors Workers Union and resumption of the negotiation over the fate of the company.
The Government is Repenting – Righting the Wrongs?
NO! While the government has placed the Commander of the Pupyong Police Station under suspension of duty, it has not changed its habit. It is targeting unionists to vilify them as the “cause” and “perpetrators” of the violent scene on April 10.
On April 11, 2 unionists were apprehended by the police in relation to the unions effort to enter the union office. At the end of 2 days of internment for questioning, the police and prosecutors have laid charges against them. They are now arrested and held in detention to face trial on their charges. The police has also issued subpoena against the 56 unionists in relation to the April 10 incident.
The government is not only refusing to recognize the reality that its policies are giving rise to this kind of tension and “confrontation” all across the society, it is trying the turn the table against the workers. This reflects the tendency and choice of the government to rely more and more on the physical force of the police and authoritarian powers of the state to implement its restructuring programmes as they are met with greater resistance due to glaring ill-effects.
Unless the “incident” is taken by the government as a timely “opportunity” to review and reflect on what it has been doing (wrong) and begin to address the causes of the problems — if the government attempts to roughshod through the current situation, then — the government may end up having to face a wide-spread and ground swell of resistance.
Action Appeal
Pictures of the April 10 carnage are posted on http://www.nodong.orgimages/daewoo/thumbs/st010410.htm and the video clip can be downloaded by clicking the following address with the right mouse button and by clicking the “save as” command — file download: dw0410.rm (file size = 70 megabyte). Video tape is also available.
Send protest letters by fax or e-mail to the following address.
Mr. Kim Dae-jung
President of Republic of Korea
FAX: +822 770-0202
E-MAIL: president@cwd.go.kr
WEB PAGE: www.cwd.go.kr
Send copies to Commissioner General cnpa100@npa.go.kr
Also, you can register your voice at the bulletin board of the National Police Agency webpage http://www.police.go.kr/user/script/chamy/together/list.html
(you will find a button at the bottom of the page – this will take you into “write” form; the form consists of, from the top, “Name”, “Subject”, “What you want to say”, and the bottom to blank spaces are for “password” which you can give so that you can change the message later, and “change”; once you have filled the boxes, you can press the button at the bottom to submit)
