hankyoreh

The prosecution has announced the results of its investigation into the Yongsan tragedy. Concerns were proven right when prosecutors placed all the blame on the victims of the police’s use of excessive violence, and no one on the police side is being charged with anything. So you have victims, but no one who caused them to become victims but themselves, it would seem. You cannot find any accurate clarification of the truth, any neutral posture, or even any “law and principles.” What is most evident are the self-serving political calculations.

The prosecution’s investigation didn’t even get to the facts of the matter. It explains that the fire in the tower occupied by protesters “was caused by a protester throwing Molotov cocktails at the paint thinner they’d sprayed.” That, however, is just a guess, as the police themselves admit. Investigators did not even make clear where the actual responsibility lies and what caused what to transpire. There continue to be assertions the police have responsibility to bear for the fire, for having made it worse by spraying water on the burring paint thinner. Some observers note that prosecutors ignored to their liking testimony about other potential causes of death. Aside from these, there remain other areas of suspicion. By the looks of it, prosecutors were lazy about parts of the investigation. They should not, then, be able to place all the blame on the protesters.

Prosecution investigators were particularly apparent in their partial blindness when it came to police responsibility. Police authorities decided to send in the SWAT team not even a full 10 hours into the protest. At that point, there were yet to be any specific losses or damage because of the protest, and yet the SWAT team went in at a time when the need was for dialogue instead of measures to quell the sit-in. Still, prosecutors supported the police raid early on in their investigation, saying the situation was “dangerous because of the Molotov cocktails and paint thinner.” In releasing the results of their investigation, they also sided with the police, who have been criticized for their actions, saying it was “beyond the police’s responsibility” and that the unnecessary raid caused the tragedy for having ignored those dangerous factors. It fits the old Korean expression, “put it on your nose and you get to call it a nose ring, put it on your ear and you get to call it an earring.”

Even in addition to this there are areas that make you suspect the investigation was pre-scripted. At first, prosecutors disregarded accusations about the police’s use of a private security company, but then grudgingly looked into it when decisive evidence appeared in the news media. Even that aspect of the investigation, however, was criticized for having been done blindfolded. Now there has been an indictment issued for some of the clearly illegal activity on the part of the private security company, but the prosecution is denying that there was collusion between the police and the private security guards, despite evidence that includes a transcript of police radio traffic in which police are heard communicating with and about the private security guards. That would be because if the suspicions are confirmed as having some basis in truth, then the whole raid can no longer be seen as the police’s “legitimately carrying out official business” and the police would have to be held responsible. It is too much to have the prosecution talk about “law and principles” when it is engaging in that kind of cut-and-paste conclusion.

The results of the investigation, therefore, are unacceptable. The investigation is being looked on with suspicion for its many flaws and even for its political motives. Not long after the tragedy, President Lee Myung-bak defended the police and said things that seemed to hint at what direction the investigation should take, saying the raid was “the rightful exercise of police force.” People are going to look at the results of this investigation and suspect it was thoroughly faithful to that guideline. Accepting the results and excusing police officials could mean another tragedy like this at any time in the future. An independent counsel needs to be appointed to re-investigate the whole case and make sure we know who was responsible.

As if he was saying so again on the occasion of the prosecution’s announcement of the results of its investigation, President Lee Myung-bak was talking about “law and principles” yesterday. His tone is that the government did absolutely nothing wrong in the events leading to the tragedy. His attitude is going to be received as a sign that he isn’t going to hold the authorities responsible for accidental homicides they commit in the course of carrying out their duties in the future. It is the kind of arrogance and self-importance that thinks nothing of the lives of the Korean people, while perpetuating its barbarous ideas about law and order. If the Lee administration uses the results of the investigation as an excuse to continue its coercive and violent tactics, the whole country is going to end up in a far more unfortunate situation than it already is. He needs to quit with this attitude immediately.

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