hankyoreh

The entire government is busy preparing for the G20 summit, which is 100 days away. Preparations are a natural part of the process of successfully holding a major international event, but that also depend on the degree of their severity. Human rights abuses, committed by the Lee Myung-bak administration under the pretext of preparing for the G20, have been growing worse. If this continues, South Korea, far from boosting its national prestige, will earn international scorn as a nation that barbarically ignores human rights and is busy controlling its people.

The primary victims are migrant workers, street merchants and the homeless. Beginning in May, the Lee administration began a wide crackdown on street merchants, claiming to be cleaning up the streets. It appears that stall merchants are being driven off downtown streets, as they are during every major international event. This is an attitude that pays no head to the living or human rights of street merchants. Homeless sleeping in subway stations have also been the subject of crackdowns. It is as if people themselves are being subjected to street cleanings.

The crackdown on migrant workers has been even more severe. Police have carried out a crackdown on foreign crime since May, and the Justice Ministry has cracked down on undocumented migrant workers since June. The pretexts differ, but they are engaged in a competition for results that regards, without any grounds, migrant workers as potential terrorists. Government officials have continued to simply ignore the human rights of foreign workers, continuing their indiscriminate crackdown in factories, homes, on the street and subways stations, day and night. They put those injured in industrial accidents in handcuffs and detain them, and beat migrants during nighttime raids. This is a shameful image of a nation undeveloped in human rights.

It appears human rights violations do not end here. A special law to provide security for the G20 summit, to go into effect from October, limits demonstrations and gatherings in accordance to the whims of the head of the president’s personal security staff, and mobilizes even the military to help police in their security duties.

Laws governing police behavior, amended in June, have greatly strengthened police authority to question persons deemed suspicious. If things continue, a climate of fear reminiscence of martial law is expected during the G20 summit period. The basic rights of the people will be ignored as if they simply do not exist.

Signs of this have already appeared. Police remain ready to deploy all their forces in preparation for the G20. Putting the daily lives and security of the people on the back burner, they say they will block the general public from approaching the G20 venue. Prosecutors have also openly declared that group actions will be sternly punished. One suspects whether there might be the intention to turn South Korea into a complete police state using the G20 as an excuse.

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