PROTESTERS ASK SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT FOR TRUTH ABOUT SEWOL FERRY DISASTER

PROTESTERS ASK SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT FOR TRUTH ABOUT SEWOL FERRY DISASTER

Protestors stood behind a barricade on East 47th street in Manhattan as policemen beyond tried to regulate the crowd.

September 24, 2014

New York City- A group of 20 South Koreans waved yellow and black signs at Second Avenue and East 47th Street where a barricade blocked protestors from entering the area surrounding United Nations (UN) headquarters. They gathered this morning to protest their government’s controversial handling of the Sewol Ferry tragedy earlier this year. Four days prior, 300 protestors held pictures of the ferry victims outside the UN.

On Sunday, September 21st just outside the UN, each protestor held up a photo of one of the 304 victims of the ferry disaster.

On April 16, 2014, Sewol capsized just off the southwest coast of the Korean peninsula in an area known for tourism, after taking a sharp left turn for reasons still unknown. Ferry passengers were wrongly told to remain in the ship as it sank, and the crew, the coast guard, and the navy failed to make rescue efforts in time. The disaster killed 304 people, 250 of whom were school children. The ferry’s captain is on trial for homicide and the crew is being charged with negligence. Last week, one of the crewmembers admitted in-court to drinking beer as the ship sank, inciting more outrage.

The protests coincided with the visit of South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who spoke this morning at the 69th UN General Assembly. One of the focal points of her speech was human rights violations in North Korea.

The activists picketing outside criticized the president for not concentrating more on unresolved political and social issues in South Korea. Emily Heo, a South Korean working in NY as a restaurant consultant, said, “Our president has lied to the public several times about this matter. She has blocked a full investigation after saying she would allow it. Now she’s here today talking about North Korea, but what about her own country?”

 September 24th, protestors held signs asking for truth, transparency and justice to the families of the victims.

Heo and her fellow protesters point to the lack of transparency in the way the South Korean government has dealt with the ferry company, which it owns in part, as a sign of corruption. Chin-Kon Kim, a NY-based writer from South Korea, said, “This kind of protest we are having here today is not allowed in South Korea. There is no freedom of speech. Pro-government groups are accusing us of being communists to silence our protests.”

Demonstrators in South Korea are taking on alternative, extreme strategies. Kim Young-Oh, the father of one of the Sewol ferry victims, held a 45-day hunger strike in protest.

President Geun-hye has expressed sympathy to the victims’ families, relating their emotions to those she felt after the assassination of her parents during her twenties. Her mother was killed by a bullet meant for her father, Park Chung-hee, president of South Korea from 1961 to 1979, when his intelligence chief murdered him. 

Last week, she declined a request from her political opposition that she should intervene in the debate over a proposed new judicial investigation of the ferry disaster. Her office should refrain, she said, to protect the independence of the courts.

 

A New York Times ad for the Sewol Truth campaign coincided with the protests. 

The grassroots organization Sewol Truth formed in order to continue the pressure on the government for a full, transparent investigation. The UN protest remained peaceful as the group handed out flyers about the Sewol Truth petition, which is now half way to its goal of 10 million supporters. Heo said, “We are just asking for basic rights in South Korea- justice, freedom of speech, and an end to censorship of the media.”