hankyoreh

A fire broke out during a police raid on a demonstration held by people protesting a government redevelopment plan on Tuesday, killing six, including one policeman. There is criticism emerging that the police action was rash and went too far.

Twenty three people were injured as police attempted to move in on demonstrators camped out in protest atop a five-story commercial building at Hangangno 2-ga in Seoul’s Yongsan district.

The fire broke out at approximately 6:45 a.m. as police attempted to enter an area they knew to be dangerous, with approximately 70 containers of highly flammable paint thinner in and around a “watchtower” occupied by protesters, which became engulfed in flames.

Yongsan Police Station Chief Baek Dong-san said that protesters “sprayed all of their paint thinner about and then threw Molotov cocktails toward police when a police special tactics team attempted to enter the watchtower.”

Witnesses, however, said that one Molotov cocktail thrown in the direction of police hit the water from a police water cannon and fell onto the surface of the building’s roof, igniting the flammable liquid.

The human damage was particularly serious because police used three water cannons to corner people into the watchtower by the time the fire broke out. Protesters threw Molotov cocktails after being shot with water in the freezing cold and cornered into the watchtower structure.

Police never attempted to engage protesters in dialogue, charging in on them just 25 hours after the protest began. Though armed with Molotov cocktails and liquid petroleum gas tanks, protesters were surprised and helpless in the face of a police operation that came just after the protest’s first day.

Roughly 1,600 police from 20 companies of full-time riot police were involved, as were 49 SWAT officers trained for anti-terrorism and major crime operations.

The SWAT officers were from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. Their participation in the operation was requested by the Yongsan Police Station chief and approved by Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Kim Seok-ki, who has been appointed as the next commissioner general of the National Police Agency.

Police have usually sought only to get involved in disputes in areas scheduled for redevelopment when there are conflicting interests between redevelopment cooperatives, construction companies, and people being removed from their homes. This time things were different.

“The police have been siding with the construction companies and redevelopment cooperatives since late last year,” said Lee Won-ho of the Korean Coalition for Housing Rights. “This is pushing the weakest in the equation, those who are losing their homes, to the brink.”

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