Police Should Improve Methods to Deal With Protesters

Amid the financial turmoil sweeping the world, the candlelight vigils that protested against U.S. beef imports here seem almost forgotten.

But some organizers of the two-month-long street protests are still using a major Buddhist temple as a sanctuary from the police, causing debates on the legality of popular demonstrations as well as the moral justification of law enforcement authorities clamping down on them.

Amnesty International's report on this matter released Monday is therefore a timely reminder of how the law enforcement officers of a self-claimed advanced democracy should have acted in those situations ― and how the Korean police failed to do so.

The report called for police to ``refrain from excessive use of force'' and improve rules regarding the riot police's allocation, training and use of force to meet international standards.

This seems to be a correct observation, considering there have been controversies on the police's use of water cannons, liquefied tear gas and undue physical force, which led to the fractured bones and broken noses of demonstrators, including women. It is the first time the human rights body made an official report on specific issues involving Korea, showing how seriously it considers the issue.

Government officials are refuting, not without reasons, the AI report as one-sided and favoring protesters, while failing to look at the harm caused on ordinary citizens and police. But justice in this regard has already been fully meted ― if not overly done ― with the police and prosecution investigating all organizations and individuals thought to have led the rallies, including civic groups, Web site operators, army reservists, teenagers in school uniforms and even women pushing baby carriages.

Most pitiable ― or rather comical ― was the summoning of three of those young mothers under the probable suspicion of using their own babies as shields. Even the governing Grand National Party criticized this absurd act as ``a show of excessive loyalty" (to President Lee Myung-bak).

It did not take long, however, for politicians to realize that the police chief actually understood the President's intention far better than party allies. Asked by opposition lawmakers to show leniency to the protest organizers, Lee made a rather irrelevant response, saying, ``Mothers should not be allowed to carry their babies to street rallies. This is equivalent to a violation of the 'Child Protection Law.'" People could hardly believe their ears. Bringing babies to protests was the best expression of will to engage in peaceful rallies as well as a symbolic gesture that everything was for the next generation. Might the President have cited the ``Child Desertion Law" had they left their babies at home?

Such was the mentality behind what is seen as the political vendetta against organizers of the candlelight protests, which heated the southern half of the Korean Peninsula for two months in early summer, during which the President had to twice apologize for his mistakes.

This is no time for settling scores with anti-government protesters, nor to attempt to track down dissidents on- and off-line. Rather it is time to make the nation into one, with all-embracing moves and gestures if for no other purpose than tiding over the economic difficulties.

The AI report says in conclusion, ``The Korean government should revise laws to allow the people to exercise their rights to peacefully gather and express their views with no fears."