Sewol families in dilemma

A group of family members of victims of the Sewol ferry disaster protest in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday, against a bill to investigate the sinking agreed to by the rival political parties. / Yonhap

By Kim Se-jeong

Months after the nation’s worst ferry disaster which cost more than 300 lives ― a majority of them being students ― family members of the victims find themselves in a catch-22 situation.

The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) reached a compromise Tuesday on a bill to investigate those responsible for the tragedy and how to prosecute them, with most of the demands from families of the victims being rejected.

On top of this, the family members are also no longer getting the same kind of support from the general public they received in the months after the accident.

The families are coming under growing pressure to drop their demands and stay away from political negotiations.

They have demanded two things ― a special counsel’s probe into the incident and to have a voice in selecting a special prosecutor for the investigation.

A look into the Tuesday’s compromise shows they are also losing support from members of the main opposition party, which had promised to represent their interests in negotiations with the Saenuri Party.

The parties agreed that, “The extent of the involvement for the family members will be discussed in due time,” which was upsetting to the relatives of the victims.

“We strongly oppose the compromise, which allowed only the ruling and opposition parties to appoint members of a selection panel,” said Chung Myeong-sun, the new head of an organization representing bereaved family members, in a press conference in Ansan Tuesday. “The families’ opinion is the most important in making sure the investigation will be independent and fair. The family members’ wishes should be included, not excluded.”

Yoo Kyung-keun, a spokesman for the group, expressed his disappointment with the NPAD.

“We trusted them when they promised us to make our voices heard. But, now we are losing faith and trust in them, which is unfortunate.”

Kim Hyong-o, who lost his daughter and staged a hunger strike to protest the government’s inaction, said, “Our request has been neglected. We’ll have to decide what to do next.”

It is hard to tell from when the unifying sympathy and support started to fade.

In a recent article, a New York Times journalist wrote that the Sewol ferry incident is “polarizing” Korea.

In some sense, the family members themselves are to blame.

Five family members including Kim Byeong-kwon, the former head of the bereaved families’ organization, were accused of beating passersby and a designated driver in Yeouido in Seoul in early September. Police requested arrest warrants earlier this week for three among them. Rep. Kim Hyun, a representative from the NAPD, was with them as well.

The family members have split among themselves.

On Monday, family members of victims who were not Danwon High School students took portraits of their loved ones away from an altar set up in Ansan to Incheon.

“Some of the family members of the victims from Danwon High School have said negative things about us, and what we are doing is a statement that we can’t stay together as one group with them,” family member Chung Myung-kyo said.

Also, the group of non-Danwon victim families has come forward to accept the compensation package put forward by the parties, while the Danwon victim families have rejected it.

The news of the rival parties striking a deal over the Sewol ferry bill was of no interest to Kim Hyong-dong, 32, a Seoul resident.

“I am getting tired of hearing about the developments related to the Sewol. I just want this to be over, and that everything goes back to as it was before,” he told The Korea Times.