hankyoreh

alumni and professors from Seoul National University leave through the school’s main gate in Gwanak district on a march to Gwanghwamun Square calling for the legislation of the special Sewol Law

By Park Ki-yong and Lee Jae-uk, staff reporters

With various groups adding their voices to the calls to legislate the special Sewol Law, students from 14 universities in the Seoul area went on two simultaneous marches on the afternoon of Aug. 25 in support of the law, which would set up an independent commission that could investigate and prosecute people connected with the sinking of the Sewol ferry. With the semester set to begin next week, university professors and students are expected to take more action in support of the law.

Around 400 participants from a joint meeting of student representatives responding to the Sewol tragedy, whose members came from the student bodies of various universities in and around Seoul, and around 200 professors, students, and alumni of Seoul National University departed from Kyunghee University and Seoul National University (SNU), respectively, around 3 pm on Monday. The two groups converged at Gwanghwamun Square, the site of the hunger strike by the families of those lost in the Sewol tragedy.

The participants from SNU - mostly members of the activist alumni association, the student council, the faculty association, and Professors for Democracy - departed from the SNU main gate in the Gwanak District of Seoul and arrived at the tents of the protestors at Gwanghwamun Square around 7 pm. Their route took them through Sangdo neighborhood, across the Hangang Bridge, and by Seoul Station.

Before beginning their march, the group held a joint press conference. “The Blue House, the government, politicians, and some conservative newspapers are distorting the purpose of the special Sewol Law, which is designed to carry out a proper investigation into the tragedy. If a special law that fails to win the support of the bereaved families is passed in a situation where even the president, the head of the government, is not keeping her promises, the fact-finding investigation will not bring to justice the senior officials who are actually guilty, and the measures that are taken to prevent future accidents will be temporary expedients,” the group said. Around 20 professors were part of the parade, including Kim Se-gyun, professor emeritus at Seoul National University.

At Kyunghee University, students were joined by council representatives from Kyonggi University, Kwangwoon University, Duksung Women’s University, Dongguk University, Dongduk Women’s University, University of Seoul, Sungkonghoe University, Sookmyung Women’s University, Yonsei University, Ewha Womans University, Hanshin University, and Hanyang University on a march from the Dongdaemun District of Seoul through Jongno District to Gwanghwamun Square.

Once the two groups met at Gwanghwamun Square, they went on another march to meet the families of those who died on the Sewol tragedy, who are in the fourth day of a sit-in in front of the Cheongwoon Hyojadong Community Service Center, near the entrance to the Blue House. The bereaved families are calling for a meeting with President Park Geun-hye. Along the way, the students clashed with police officers who were blocking the way.

Even after being taken to the hospital from his tent at Gwanghwamun Square on Aug. 22, Kim Young-oh, 47, father of a high school girl named Yu-min who died in the Sewol tragedy, is continuing his hunger strike, now in its 44th day.

On Monday, a letter was published in which Kim’s younger daughter Yu-na, 17, expressed her concern for her father and asked the president to meet with him.

"Please meet him just once and listen carefully to him. The families of the victims are deeply hurt because you have not kept your promise to meet them whenever they want and you have said that this not a matter for you to get involved in. When even the lawmakers are ignoring the bereaved families, I don’t know what I ought to do. My father will die unless something changes,” which Kim Yu-na said in a letter that she wrote by hand on Aug. 21.

The Sewol Victims’ Family Committee released more concrete evidence backing up charges made the previous day that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) has been investigating Kim Young-oh.

“On Aug. 22, the day that Kim Young-oh was hospitalized, an NIS agent visited the director of the hospital, identified himself, and asked questions about Lee Bo-ra, the doctor who is tending to Kim,” Yoo Kyung-geun, spokesperson for the Family Committee, said during the press conference on Monday.

On Monday, people continued to visit Gwanghwamun Square to participate in sympathy hunger strikes calling for the legislation of the special Sewol Law. The Catholic Priests Association for Justice also held a fast and prayer for uncovering the truth about the Sewol tragedy, with around 300 priests, nuns, and laypeople gathering at the square.

Around 200 people from the Gathering of Christians Who Remember the Sewol Tragedy held a prayer meeting of their own, also in support of the special Sewol Law.

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