Yesterday morning saw the deaths of several demolition protesters occupying the rooftop of a building scheduled for demolition in Seoul’s Yongsan-gu and resisting the attempts of police to suppress them. A total of six people died, including one police officer, while over 20 were injured.

It is reported that most of the victims burned to death during the police’s attempts to quash the protest. The incident occurred after over 2,000 police officers surrounded the more than 50 demolition protesters and mobilized water cannons and cranes to suppress the protest. The protesters resisted with Molotov cocktails, and canisters of paint thinner piled up on the rooftop exploded. The situation called to mind a battleground, a catastrophe that one might see at the site of a massacre. Before becoming demolition protesters, a number of those killed or injured had been ordinary working-class citizens and area residents, the owners of neighborhood shops and draft beer houses. One cannot help being stunned and fearful. How little must the government have thought of the lives of the people to drive them to this?

The primary responsibility for the tragedy falls on the police, who were too hasty to respond with excessive suppression measures. The police claimed that they could not ignore illegal acts like the spraying of paint thinner and the throwing of Molotov cocktails. But if the protesters were holding dangerous materials, it was a situation for which a human toll could be sufficiently predicted. Even so, they pressed on indiscriminately, something they could not do unless they felt that a few lives or injuries could safely be risked.

Also out of the ordinary is the fact that they began their attempt to quash the protest a mere 25 hours after the protesters began their sit-in. When a group grievance occurs, there should first be attempts to resolve it through dialogue. Indeed, there have been many discussions taking place every few months thus far. But this time there was none of that kind of dialogue and discussion. In fact, many are commenting that this incident occurred because of the indiscriminate pursuit of redevelopment plans. It is also being said that the protesters decided to hold their protest as a result of having been chased out into the street in the middle of winter without even receiving their legally due compensation. For those involved, it was a matter of survival. If the government, far from acting as mediator, instead takes the side of the developers and carries out a suppression, it is impossible for this to be recognized as legitimate exercise of the law.

Yet the police, unconcerned with this, immediately deployed a commando squad -- the kind that would be mobilized in something like a terrorist attack or hostage situation -- toward civilian protesters. One cannot view this as anything other than regarding the people as targets for attack.

This is not the only time we have seen an attitude that seems to regard the people as enemies. The Lee Myung-bak administration has been busy with efforts to quiet the voices of the people by force since the time of last year’s candlelight demonstrations. They shut down and punished Internet discourse, and now they are presenting some strained justification about what they perceive as “unreasonable opposition,” attempting to push through bad laws that block even constitutionally-protected freedoms of expression and assembly. The prosecutors and police are also making noise about “taking stern action against illegal group acts.” The personnel reshuffle that saw positions filled with “the president’s men,” including the designation of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Kim Seok-ki, who led all manner of harsh suppression measures at the time of the candlelight demonstrations, as the next commissioner general of the National Police Agency represents another of these wholly hard-line policies.

This tragedy must be viewed as a disaster long ago foreseen within this kind of oppressive administration. But even worse incidents could occur if Cheong Wa Dae continues to ignore the pained voices of the people with the brazen attitude demonstrated in statements like “I hope this incident will mark the beginning of an end to the vicious cycle of extreme protests.” The government must immediately abandon its antagonistic policy toward the people. To start with, the right thing to do would be to place responsibility firmly on the drastic suppression measures, rather than evading responsibility on this matter and talking about “rebellious outside forces.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]