By Kim Rahn
Thousands of residents from western coastal villages staged rallies Wednesday, demanding the government and Samsung Heavy Industries take proper action to compensate them for the nation’s worst oil spill four years ago.
About 7,000 residents claiming damages from the oil spill took to the streets, with some 1,000 protesting in front of Samsung Electronics’ headquarters in southern Seoul and the rest outside the government complex in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province.
The protest comes four years after the incident on Dec. 7, 2007, when the Hong Kong supertanker Hebei Spirit was rammed by a Samsung crane barge that broke free of towlines attached to tugboats about 11 kilometers off the coast in Taean, South Chungcheong Province. Some 12,000 tons of crude oil spilt into the sea.
“Samsung’s crane barge was mainly responsible for the disaster. But for the last four years, the company only said it would pay 100 billion won for the region’s development, which is far short of the actual damage caused, claiming it had done its best,” said a federation of affected residents.
The group claimed the government has remained indifferent to the issue and has not tried to help the residents receive compensation from Samsung or the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) Funds, adding four residents have killed themselves as their livelihood deteriorated after the disaster.
According to the Korean Federation for Environmental Movements, a civic group that joined the protest, some 73,200 cases were reported to the IOPC Funds with 1.2 trillion won in claimed damages, but the IOPC Funds acknowledged only some 20,000 of them.
“Most of the affected residents were individuals collecting clams or running small-scale sea farms. They failed to present documents to prove their income, as they didn’t make money regularly. In the case of those engaged in non-fishing, such as restaurants or tourism-related industries, the IOPC Funds did not acknowledge claims for most of them, because it was difficult to prove a ‘direct’ link between the oil spill and their reduced sales,” said Park Chang-jae, a director of the civic group.
Although the Supreme Court recognized Samsung’s responsibility for the spill, a local court limited the firm’s compensation payment to 5.6 billion won in a separate civil suit. The company said in February 2008 it would donate 100 billion won for the region’s development and recovery, while residents claimed they needed at least 600 billion won to recover the ecosystem. Even the promised 100 billion won hasn’t been given to the residents yet, Park said.
“Samsung, as the wrongdoer, should take responsibility for the residents’ ruined lives,” he added.
The government also set up a special law to support the victims, separately from the IOPC Funds’ assessment.
“It is also to be seen whether the government will give support to all the claimants or exclude those who can’t submit official documents to prove their damage,” Park said.
Unlike the U.S. or Spanish governments which pressure companies responsible for oil spills to pay huge compensation and help residents’ legal battles, the Korean government only promoted that the western coast’s environment had fully recovered ― which is not the case, according to Park.
“The government also should have urged the company to compensate those affected immediately or mediate disputes between the firm and residents,” he said.