hankyoreh

The Lee Myung-bak administration, which has frequently been under fire for turning back the clock with unpopular policies, is again going against the grain with its handling of the recent police crackdown on residents who protested against being evicted to make way for a redevelopment project.

The presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling Grand National Party are saying that an investigation should precede any punishments in an apparent bid to avoid punishing officials responsible for the deadly fire, which left five protesters and one police officer dead on Jan. 20. Critics accuse prosecutors of focusing only on the violent actions committed by protesters, while ignoring protesters’ claims that police used excessive force in carrying out its operation. They also say that police keep changing their account of the incident, offering false explanations about what happened.

As for whether the government will fire Seoul Police Commissioner Kim Seok-ki to hold him responsible for the incident, a Cheong Wa Dae official said that the decision “will be delayed until after the prosecution completes its investigation.”

A separate source said, “The government has to follow official procedures in running state affairs... and it would be tough to take action based only on public opinion when it is not clear who is responsible.”

Though it had looked like Kim would be forced to resign over the incident, their comments might mean that Kim’s fate will be determined after Feb. 6 at the earliest, when the results of the investigation are expected.

Some government and GNP officials are reportedly planning to question Kim about the incident during his parliamentary confirmation hearing. Kim was recently appointed as the next commissioner general of the National Police Agency.

A high-ranking ruling party lawmaker said, “Some insiders say that Kim’s fate should be determined through the confirmation hearing... It will not be easy to fire Kim.”

The change in the government’s position from simply firing Kim to allowing him to be questioned about the incident at his confirmation hearing might be based on its assessment that things are under control and public anger at the tragedy is subsiding. “According to our own public poll, 60 percent say that an investigation should come first, while a mere 33 percent say (Kim) should be punished,” a GNP official said.

Police and prosecutors also seem to have changed their positions about what happened the day of the deadly demonstration. When a recording of a police radio transmission was revealed last week, showing that police mobilized security guards to help quell the demonstration, police said that the recording was not made by police officers. They later changed their statement, saying that the report was made by police officers, but that the transmission was “a report by field officers who misconstrued security guards as police.”

However, many parts of the recording reveal that the police actually did cooperate with security guards during the operation. During another recorded conversation, a person identified as a police officer said, “Security guards should remove the obstacles, and if that isn’t enough police officers should be sent in.”

Police have continued to deny this, saying that the record of their communications may not be accurately representing the situation as it happened.

Prosecutors arrested five people who were either area residents or members of the Federation Against House Demolition (Jun Chul Yun),

again raising the criticism that they were taking swift, strong action against protesters but were not paying as much attention to claims that police might have used excessive force in cracking down on the demonstration.

Just two days after the incident occurred, and before the National Institute of Scientific Investigation completed its investigation, the prosecution concluded that the fire was started by Molotov cocktails made and thrown by protesters, three of whom it charged with obstruction of justice and injuring police officers. Some reports say that the fire was started when a container box carrying police officers was dropped onto the roof the building, where demonstrators had barricaded themselves into a makeshift tower containing cans of paint thinner and other explosive materials.

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