Int'l rights groups oppose farmer's autopsy

Mourners queue at the Seoul National University Hospital’s memorial hall, Monday, to pay their respects to Baek Nam-ki, a farmer who died following 10 months in a coma after being knocked over by a police water cannon during a rally last year. Nearly 7,000 people have come to offer their condolences since his death, Sunday. / Yonhap

By Kim Bo-eun, Choi Ha-young

Four international organizations advocating human rights and trade unions jointly issued a statement, Wednesday, condemning Korea’s prosecution and police for pushing for an autopsy of a deceased farmer, who died after being knocked down by a police water cannon during a rally last November.

The statement comes after police re-applied for a warrant to conduct the autopsy on Baek Nam-ki, Monday night, after the Seoul Central District Court refused its first request early that day. The first request was filed on Sunday night after Baek, 69, died earlier in the afternoon following 10 months in a coma after being hit by the water cannon.

Baek’s physician declared he died from acute renal failure following a subdural hemorrhage, but police are claiming there may have been underlying conditions that caused these. They say an autopsy will clarify the cause of the farmer’s death.

“Despite a national outcry and international condemnation of the police’s use of undue force against demonstrators during the rally, law enforcement agencies refuse to apologize or to launch an official investigation into the injuries that resulted from police intervention, including those that left Baek in a coma for the last months of his life,” said the statement issued by the International Federation for Human Rights, European Trade Union Confederation, International Trade Union Confederation and Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD.

“Our organizations strongly condemn the ongoing attempts by the authorities to evade accountability and justice for their brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators,” it said. “We call for a transparent and independent investigation into the events of the rally and for a thorough review of police protocol regarding crowd control and freedom of assembly, notably regulations of the use of water cannon trucks.”

Baek’s family members and civic groups supporting them submitted a petition to the court, opposing the autopsy. In a press conference at Seoul National University Hospital, they claimed Baek’s 10 months of medical records sufficiently show that his injuries from the water cannon caused the conditions which led to his death.

“We maintain that an autopsy is unnecessary both in the legal and medical sense,” Son Yeong-joon, head of a committee representing Baek’s family, told The Korea Times. “Taking away Baek's body for an autopsy will be another tragedy replayed from the day of the incident. We will employ all means to stop the police proceeding with the autopsy.”

Citizens continued to visit Baek’s funeral altar, queuing to pay their respects. Hundreds of them took part in a candlelit rally in front of the hospital.

Inside the memorial hall, civic group members collected signatures for a petition calling for an investigation to find those accountable and punishment of them, and also to set up regulations to prevent such a case from recurring.

“I came from Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province. Although I cannot offer actual help, I just wanted to come and pay my respects,” Cho Seung-jae, a 17-year-old, told The Korea Times.

“I think the police’s use of the water cannon was an act of violence exercised by the state. If it was just a death unrelated to the authorities, all of these people wouldn’t have come,” said a woman from Seoul, surnamed Jung.