After 200 days, farmer still unconscious and police still not investigated

Posted on : 2016-05-31 17:48 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Baek Nam-gi has been in a coma since being knocked down by police water cannon last year
Tom Rainey-Smith
Tom Rainey-Smith

As the sweltering afternoon sun shone down on the intersection in front of Jongno District Office in Seoul on May 30, Lee Ho-jung, permanent director of the Catholic Human Rights Committee, began to speak.

“Baek Nam-gi, the farmer who was struck down by the power of the state, still lingers at the boundary between death and life. The year has turned and the season has changed, but all that remains is the man who was struck down, and the perpetrator who struck this murderous blow is nowhere to be found,” Lee said.

On Monday a press conference was held by human rights activists on the spot where Baek was knocked to the ground during a demonstration held on Nov. 14, 2015.

Lee was participating in a press conference held one day before the 200th day since Baek was knocked out by a water cannon fired by the police. The activists were protesting the fact that no one in the government has offered an apology, taken responsibility or been prosecuted for this act of state violence.

“Two hundred days have passed, but everything remains as it was on Nov. 14 of last year. The police have not released the results of their investigation into the facts of the case, nor have any measures been taken to prevent this from happening again,” said Choi Seok-hwan, secretary general of the Baek Nam-gi Action Committee.

Last year, the police launched an internal investigation, promising to determine whether state power had been abused on the day of the incident. But the internal investigation is on hold out of concern that it could affect the prosecutors’ investigation.

But the prosecutors’ investigation has been moving forward at a crawl. Immediately after the incident, Baek’s oldest daughter Doraji and Kim Yeong-ho, president of the Korean Farmers League, asked the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office to investigate six police officials, including Kang Shin-myung, chief of the National Police Agency, on charges of attempted murder and of violating the Act on the Performance of Duties by Police Officers. But all the prosecutors have done since then is question the people who filed the complaint one time this past December.

“Common sense would tell you that, when someone reports injustice, the investigation and prosecution ought to move forward according to the appropriate procedures. But the prosecutors aren’t doing their work, right? This is not just frustrating - it makes me wonder whether they’re even allowed to do this,” Doraji said during a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh.

Given the damage to Baek’s brain stem and more than half of his cerebrum, it is unlikely that he will regain consciousness.

The last hope for his family is the start of the new National Assembly, which will be convening today. The three opposition parties - the Minjoo Party of Korea, the People’s Party and the Justice Party - have recently agreed to appoint a special prosecutor and to hold a hearing to look into the excessive use of water cannons by the police.

After hearing this news, Baek’s youngest daughter, Baek Minjuwha, who is currently in the Netherlands, posted a message on her Facebook page. “I hope that Dad holds on for a long time. I really hope he gets to see this [the public prosecutor and the hearing] while he’s still with us,” she said.

By Ko Han-sol, staff reporter

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

 

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