Plea from Sewol victim's mother adds fuel to anti-President rage
.jpg?w=728)
Lee Geum-hee, center, the mother of a missing victim of the Sewol ferry disaster from 2014, speaks at Gwanghwamun Square during the sixth anti-president rally on Dec. 3. / Courtesy of Hankook Ilbo
By Ko Dong-hwan
On Dec. 3, when the sixth massive anti-president rally was held at Gwanghwamun Square, protesters re-encountered the haunting trauma of the Sewol ferry disaster more than two years ago.
When an embittered mother of a missing passenger from the accident recounted her last phone call with her daughter in the sinking ship, the heart-wrenching scene vindicated another cause for the scandal-plagued President’s resignation: that the head of state should not be free from the deaths of 304 nationals and nine missing unless she explains what she did during the first “seven hours” after the ship began to sink.
The mother of Cho Eun-hwa, a second-year student from Danwon High School in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, stood in front of a 1.7 million crowd in the candlelit anti-Park demonstration in central Seoul.
She said that since the accident on Apr. 16, 2014, she had been “draping herself under a blanket” and staying at Paengmok Harbor on Jindo Island, near which the disaster happened, until now.
“I am still living in that same date,” Lee Geum-hee, the bereaved mother, said, struggling not to cry.
The Sewol ferry, which departed the port city of Incheon and headed for Jeju island carrying 476 paassengers, sank in waters off Korea's southwestern coast on Apr. 16, killing 304 passengers and leaving nine missing. / Korea Times file
Lee's main message was to promote the importance of recovering the sunken ship, which will not only make family members of missing victims feel better but also unearth evidence to help “verify the truth” behind Korea’s worst maritime disaster in Korea in years.
There is still suspicion about the responsible authorities, including the President.
“If the country turns its back on 304 passengers who died in that accident, to have them die in vain, that country will never bear responsibility for not a single thing,” said Lee on stage, drawing a round of applause.
The mysterious “seven missing hours” have long been a subject of public criticism as the President, the first head to be investigated by prosecutors on charges of allowing her friend ― Choi Soon-sil ― to control state affairs and abusing her power in helping Choi illegitimately amass wealth, has not revealed what she did during those critical hours.
The presidential office defended that its staffs and the President kept communicating about the accident “through written reports” while she was at Cheong Wa Dae.
The response only boosted public curiosity and doubts about what she actually did.
Park’s control tower also received a backlash for belatedly responding to the disaster that killed mostly high school students on their way to a retreat on Jeju Island.
The President’s silence generated rumors, including that she was receiving cosmetic medical procedures during those hours.
Park Young-soo, the special prosecutor named to investigate the so-called “Park Geun-hye scandal,” said on Dec. 2 he would investigate the President’s whereabouts during the controversial hours.
The following is Lee's full speech at Gwanghwamun Square on Dec. 3.
Hello, I am the mother of Cho Eun-hwa from Danwon High School Class 2-1.
On Apr. 16, 2014, I got a phone call from Cho at 8:55 a.m. She asked me if I had a breakfast. Then she added that something is wrong with the ship. I thought it was just a strong wave that was causing her sea-sickness. She told me the ship will arrive at Jeju Island at 12 p.m.
She called me again at 9:12 a.m. She said the ship was slanting about 45 degrees. She said her phone got chipped and her teacher told her to wear a lifejacket.
And that was my last conversation with her.
I saw on TV with my husband in the living room the sinking ship and asked him what we should do, sobbing.
He told me, “The big ship will be saved. It certainly will.”
At 9:58 a.m., I could talk to Eun-hwa’s friend, Seung-hee. I asked her where Eun-hwa was. Seung-hee told me she cannot see her now but she must be in a different room.
I went to the school. There, they told me all the passengers have been saved. I pitied Eun-hwa who must have been scared and went down to Jindo Island to take her home.
At Jindo, I could see a small number of kids out there who were saved from the ship. And since that day, I have been draping myself under a blanket and staying at Paengmok Harbor until now.
People with candles in your hands, I am sure you know why I am telling you this story. That was how I spent the day of Apr. 16, 2014. I am still living in that same date and I am sure the last name Eun-hwa had called out must be her mother.
Many of us, including parents, were at first relived to see from TV news that all the passengers were saved. In the evening that day, however, the relief turned into terror for many of us, mothers, fathers, Eun-hwa’s friends, asking, “How could this happen?”
I thank all of those who have been right beside the bereaved victims who lost their family members, either dead or missing, shouting “To the bosom of families.”
But Sewol ferry is still under the sea. I hope the missing people ― Eun-hwa, Da-yun, Hyun-chul, Young-in, Yang Seung-jin, Ko Chang-seok, Kwon Jae-geun, Hyuk-gyu, Lee Young-sook ― return to their families.
Recovering that ship will connect the missing victims to their families, provide evidence for verifying the truth for the victims whose family members died out there, relieve the surviving passengers who can finally live on without pain, and suggest a way to build a safe world for all citizens.
Recovering the ship will bring the missing victims ashore. It is finding those missing people.
Please give us your support to recover the ship, to bring up that ship that we have been avidly watching, waiting and longing.
Only then, the time will come for citizens to be protected by their country.
If the country turns its back on 304 passengers who died in that accident, to make them die in vain, that country will never bear responsibility for anything.
For the 304 not to have died in vain, for the Sewol ferry to come ashore to the bosom of mothers and fathers who broke down on Apr. 16, 2014, for me to bid farewell to Eun-ha as a human being, as her mother, please give us your support.
I sincerely ask for nationwide support, cheer, attention and prayer so that the missing victims’ death can be confirmed and every single one of them can return to their families.
Thank you.