Protestors Rounded Up Before Heading to Cheong Wa Dae
By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
Police rounded up 37 ``candlelight vigilantes'' in downtown Seoul around 4 a.m. Sunday for their alleged illegal collective action to protest the planned imports of what they call unsafe American beef. Civic groups protested the police action as an abuse of enforcement power.
NGO members, including the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, held a rally at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Jongno, downtown Seoul, Sunday afternoon, to denounce the detention.
Police said the detention was necessary to minimize the inconvenience to other citizens, adding that the detained will be investigated on charges of holding an illegal rally. However, later in the day, police released one after finding out he was a high school student.
``We ordered them to leave the scene several times but they refused, occupying the streets and assaulting police officers,'' Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Han Jin-hee said Sunday. ``We will seek legal punishment against them if they are responsible for the charges of leading illegal protest.''
The main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) criticized the roundup as a `` declaration of war on citizens.''
UDP spokeswoman Cha Young warned the government over the consequences if police continue to crack down on what she called peaceful rallies.
According to police, 7,000 citizens including students, office workers and civic group members started a candlelit vigil to oppose the U.S. beef import at the Cheonggye Stream Plaza in downtown Seoul from 7 p.m. on Saturday. The number increased as members from civic groups and labor unions joined the vigil.
The vigil took a violent turn around 9 p.m. when participants began a march toward Cheong Wa Dae, which resulted in physical clashes with riot police.
In the march, protestors occupied Sejong Road in Gwanghwamun, blocking traffic on the 16-lane road.
Most of them left the scene around midnight but some five hundred remained until 6 a.m. Sunday.