Rival parties on Thursday agreed to hold a parliamentary hearing on the alleged excessive use of force by police during a massive protest last year that led to Baek Nam-gi, a 69-year-old farmer, falling into a coma after being knocked down by a water cannon.
The ruling Saenuri Party and opposition parties agreed to hold the hearing on a date between Sep. 5 and 7. The agreed-upon witness list includes former National Police Agency Chief Kang Sin-myeong, who has been under criticism for instructing riot police to use the water cannon.
The agreement came in light of a sit-in at the headquarters of the main opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea by civic groups supporting Baek as well as representatives of surviving family members of the 2014 Sewol sinking tragedy. They urged the lawmakers to step up their efforts to probe both incidents.
A participant joins a sit-in protest involving surviving family members of Sewol incident and civic groups supporting injured activist Baek Nam-ki at The Minjoo Party of Korea headquarters in Seoul on Thursday. Yonhap
International human rights watchdogs have expressed concern after Baek, who had joined an anti-government protest in November, was seriously injured, as the water cannon continued to target him even after he had collapsed.
The incident sparked debate over the danger of the use of water cannons by South Korean police at street rallies and the protection of human rights when keeping public order.
Participants at the sit-in that began in the morning slammed the parties’ lack of efforts to hold the hearing about activist Baek. They also demanded that President Park Geun-hye apologize for the incident and prosecutors to launch a probe into the case.
Meanwhile, six bereaved family members, who participated in the sit-in, demanded the Minjoo Party enact a special law to renew the term of the special committee investigating the country’s worst maritime tragedy that left 304 dead or missing.
The surviving families asserted that the special committee, which the government claims ended its term in June, should continue their work to find out the exact cause of the tragedy and offer proper compensation to victims.
“We strongly urge the Minjoo Party to do its utmost in the opposition-controlled National Assembly. If not, the people will turn their back on the party,” said the protestors in a statement. The Minjoo Party and the third-biggest People’s Party emerged as a winning bloc in the April election with 159 out of 300 seats.
On the same day, the Minjoo Party’s first-term lawmakers held a rally in downtown Seoul and a public square in front of Cheong Wa Dae to protest the government’s decision to shut down the Sewol special committee.
First termers of The Minjoo Party of Korea hold a press conference calling on President Park Geun-hye to extend the probe into the 2014 Sewol sinking tragedy in front of Cheong Wa Dae in central Seoul on Thursday. Ahn Hoon/The Korea Herald
“President Park should step forward to figure out what exactly led to the Sewol tragedy,” said Rep. Pyo Chang-won. The police-turned-politician was one of 28 lawmakers who attended the rally. There are 57 first-termers in The Minjoo Party, making up about 70 percent of their lawmakers.
The opposition party had initially planned to pressure the president to sack Woo Byung-woo, the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs. Woo has been pressured to resign over his alleged ties to corruption and an influence-peddling scandal.
But the first-term lawmakers withdrew the plan at the last minute out of concern that the measure would be seen as a populist protest outside of the parliament as criticized by the government and the Saenuri Party.
“What we are doing today is not an ‘outside protest,’” said The Minjoo Party spokesman Rep. Ki Dong-min. “We are just asking the president to listen to our voice and honor the commitment (to address the Sewol tragedy).”
By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)
