hankyoreh

Yoo Nam-yeong

The police’s crackdown of a strike by the labor union at SsangYong Motor in 2009 received the final approval of the Blue House under then president Lee Myung-bak, an official probe has concluded. Another conclusion was that the police broke the law when they suppressed the strikers with antiterrorist weapons such as Tasers and multipurpose launchers.

On Aug. 28, a fact-finding commission charged with investigating cases of human rights abuses by the National Police Agency (NPA) released the results of its investigation into the police’s crackdown of the SsangYong Motor strike in 2009. According to the commission, the police forced their way into the SsangYong factory occupied by the labor union after Cho Hyun-oh, then Chief Commissioner of the Gyeonggi Province Police Agency, personally contacted the employment secretary at the Blue House and received approval for the use of law enforcement.

“The Blue House gave final authorization for police involvement in this incident. This was not merely an action by law enforcement but was closely linked to industrial and labor policy at the time,” said Yu Nam-yeong, the commission chair.

Then NPA Commissioner General Kang Hui-rak had been opposed to forcibly entering the factory, pointing to the risks of using the police to break up the strike and arguing that labor and management should be left to negotiate the matter themselves. But Cho Hyun-oh bypassed Kang, his immediate superior, and called the Blue House directly, getting permission from then president Lee Myung-bak to enter the factory.

Cho acknowledged as much during an interview with the Hankyoreh last month: “The NPA commissioner general can’t know the situation on the ground. When the commander on the ground who’s been keeping an eye on things by riding a helicopter out there every day is willing to put his reputation on the line, you ought to believe him, but [former NPA Commissioner General Kang] didn’t do that. That’s why I called the Blue House secretary directly. The president [Lee Myung-bak] must have been worried, because I was asked to confirm that the operation could be pulled off without an incident, so I told them I would take responsibility.”

The fact-finding commission also concluded that the police broke the law when they sprayed tear gas from low-flying helicopters and fired electroshock weapons into the faces of unionists while suppressing the strike. The commission recommended that the police apologize for the human rights violations that occurred during the law enforcement action.

Other recommendations were for the government to withdraw lawsuits it has filed asking for compensation from SsangYong strikers and for the police to refrain from using potentially lethal equipment – such as Tasers and multipurpose launchers – on the site of demonstrations, protests and labor actions.

The commission also confirmed that the police had created an “internet response team” of 50 officers to post comments in an attempt to turn public opinion against the SsangYong strike and concluded that this attempt to manipulate public opinion went beyond the legitimate bounds of police work.

By Jung Hwan-bong and Lim Jae-woo, staff reporters

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