hankyoreh

a man presumed to be a security guard shoots a water cannon at protesters to disperse them from a building where they were demonstrating against a Yongsan redevelopment project on January 19.

With the prosecution nearing the end of its investigation into the Yongsan demolition protest, which resulted in the deaths of six people last month, the release of new video footage of security guards shooting water at protesters and providing evidence of the alleged relationship between police and security guards has raised concerns that the prosecution has not conducted a balanced investigation. People involved in the protest and concerned civic groups have observed that the prosecution appears to be giving more weight to the explanations offered by police while ignoring the statements made by protesters and civic groups.

On Tuesday, Munhwa Broadcasting Corp.’s current-affairs television program “The Producer’s Notebook” aired a video clip showing police officers and security guards shooting water at protesters occupying the dilapidated building that was the site of the Yongsan demolition protest tragedy on Jan. 19. Another clip showed security guards with shields marked “Policia,” the Spanish word for “police,” storming into the building before dawn on Jan. 20, when the resultant clash between police and protesters led to the deaths of six people.

In response, investigators with the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office said Wednesday, “The water is something that we haven’t figured out. We will summon related personnel for investigation.” Senior prosecutor Jeong Byeong-du, who is leading the investigation, said, “There are limits on how much evidence we can collect because we weren’t at the site at the time of the incident.”

But it has been reported that the prosecution secured recordings of police radio transmissions made just before police entered the building on Jan. 20, which revealed the security guards’ participation in the police operation to remove the protesters from the building. It has also been confirmed that the prosecution obtained a transcript of a firefighters’ radio transmission made at around 4:00 a.m. that day, approximately three hours before the crackdown began. In the transcript, someone can be heard saying, “Security guards are setting fire beneath the makeshift tower on the rooftop, but it’s difficult to get onto the rooftop because the police are not cooperating.” More recently, the prosecution responded to “The Producers’ Notebook” segment containing the video footage by saying, “While there was a statement by one of the protesters that security guards fired off water cannons, it couldn’t confirm who they were,” meaning that prosecutors had in fact taken statements from protesters about the incident.

In saying that it has “no obvious evidence,” the prosecution seems accept the police’s statements about the police radio transmissions. Though one transmission appears to contain instructions from police to security guards and another appears to contain conversations about the guards’ participation in the crackdown, police said that the recordings were not made by police officers. Later, they changed their story and said the recordings were “reports by field officers who misconstrued security guards as police.”

Now, with the prosecution close to announcing the outcome of its investigation, its methods are coming under increasing scrutiny, with some saying that they are attempting to blame protesters for the tragedy, giving more weight to justifications for the crackdown than to reports that police used excessive force in executing its operation.

Of particular concern is the prosecution’s treatment of Seoul Police Commissioner Kim Seok-ki, who approved the crackdown operation and was later nominated to head the National Police Agency. After debating about whether to question Kim in person, prosecutors allowed Kim to submit written answers to their questions.

However, also of concern is the behavior of prosecutors at a Tuesday press conference, when they again seemed to side with police in emphasizing the need for the crackdown.

In a statement released Wednesday, the civic group Solidarity for Human Right Groups said, “People are dead, but the prosecution’s investigation, which has failed to identify who killed them, is what’s killing them a second time and making their families cry a second time.” The statement continued, “We strongly denounce the prosecution, which is trying to accommodate the Lee administration.”

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