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In a full rebuttal of UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai’s criticism of how the South Korean police have been handling protests, South Korea’s highest ranking police official claimed that there were errors in Kiai’s facts and attitude.

Kang Sin-myeong

Kiai, who visited South Korea to carry out a fact-finding investigation about protests in the country, is the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

“Before the UN’s official report is issued this coming June, we’re planning to inform Special Rapporteur Kiai of what was inappropriate about what he said during his press conference and to provide him with objective information,” said Kang Sin-myeong, Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency, during a meeting with the press on Feb. 1. Kang was responding to the allegation raised by Kiai during a press conference on Jan. 29 that there are problems with how the police have been managing demonstrations.

Kiai will be using the results of his fact-finding visit to South Korea to prepare his final report about the freedoms of assembly and association in the country, which he will submit to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in June of this year.

“We have never used vehicle barricades against a legal and authorized demonstration, and we used them when the protestors attempted to force their way into forbidden areas,” Kang said, in response to Kiai’s claim that the vehicle barricades and water cannons that appeared during the nationwide rally in Nov. 2015 had unnerved the protestors and provoked violence.

“In addition, the water cannons were not used as part of our response to the demonstration, but rather to suppress violence,” Kang said, arguing that it is unreasonable to conflate the application of these methods with an infringement of the basic rights of citizens, such as the freedom of assembly.

Kang also addressed lawsuits that the police are getting ready to file in an attempt to collect compensation for property damage and injuries inflicted during the nationwide rally. “It’s illogical to say that holding the guilty parties responsible infringes on the freedom of assembly. It’s right to sue people who broke the law. Personally, I don’t agree with the position that people’s basic rights will be curtailed by the lawsuits,” he said.

By Kim Sung-hwan, staff reporter

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