Peace Again on Sunday Night   2008-06-09 02:39

Most of us need to get back to work, which means that not many people could make time to participate in Sunday night's candlelight vigil -- the last of the weekend's 72-hour nonstop protest. Nevertheless, 30,000 citizens showed up and protested peacefully for a few hours. As the crowd grew, tensions mounted as usual between riot police and the protesters. But nobody wanted to repeat the chaos of the night before, so no violence was witnessed. Most of us stayed in Seoul Plaza until about 11:00 pm, after which the protesters voluntarily wrapped up. Downtown Seoul is quiet once again, at least until Tuesday, June 10th. That day is the 21st anniversary of the June Democratization Movement, which brought about the downfall of dictator Chun Doo-Hwan in 1987. Various groups online and offline are calling for a massive protest once again.

According to those who have been responsible for organizing the recent protests, a total of 500,000 people nationwide participated in candlelight vigils over the weekend. (The police, on the other hand, reports only one third of that number. People have been debating the accuracy of the police's method of counting heads, as they still seem to be using the same method as they had used 20 years ago -- when labor unions and left-wing activists organized into orderly rows and columns made up most of the crowd, rather than teenagers and families tightly packed together.)

Below are some pictures that were taken during daylight hours, before the night's final candlelight vigil. Some citizens have been giving flowers to the riot police, urging them to join the People rather than taking part in the government's oppression (top left). A teenage girl holds a picket with the words "Our sovereignty has been trampled upon; protect what must be protected" (top right; this picket is one of the many that have been distributed by one of the NGO's). A senior citizen carries a handwritten picket with the words "No means No" (bottom left; this man has become quite famous by now). Another man holds a picket with the words "Lee Myung-Bak! Just don't do anything" (bottom right). Notice that the focus is rapidly shifting away from the issue of U.S. beef, which triggered the protests one month ago. Now our protests are about democracy and our rights.

Meanwhile, suspicions continue to rise about the identities of those individuals who were seen exerting violence against the police during the last hours of Saturday night's protest. (See the previous post for more discussion of this topic.) Below are two pictures of the person who smashed the windows of a police bus with a small hammer. He is surprisingly well-equipped: he even wears protective sleeves to keep his elbows from being cut by the debris. Also, he is wearing a mask when nobody else is; and the fire extinguisher in his left hand explains why. Though a lot of protesters were obviously nearing the limits of their patience by that hour, this guy isn't some drunk and overexcited youngster who ran out of self-control as some of the media have been saying. His actions were intentional and planned well ahead. The question is, why did he plan so carefully?

The next series of photographs might give us an answer, though they are not about the same person. These pictures have been taken from a live broadcast during the early morning hours. They show three men -- one wearing a jacket with a red stripe across the chest and carrying a fire extinguisher, another in a black pullover, and the third wearing a blue shirt and carrying a folding ladder. The men are also wearing masks. They walk out onto the street and look around (1). Then they approach the riot police, and walk alongside the police for a while (2). After that, they part with the riot police (3) and continue towards the protesters (4). Now, here's the interesting part. All night, the police had been very sensitive to anything that might lead to violence. People had been arrested just because they were holding sticks and pipes, even where there was no proof that they hit anyone with those objects. Why, then, does the police leave alone the three masked men, who are obviously intending to do some damage with their tools? And why are the three men so comfortable walking next to the police? So here's the speculation that a lot of People are making: these guys know each other, or at least they're aware of each other's plans.

This, of course, is no proof that the government had actually employed thugs to initiate the violence. But this means at the very least that the police had prior knowledge of plans for violent behavior, and did nothing to prevent it. Perhaps the police was looking forward to it, as violence from the protesters' side would give the government ample justification for a violent response. Now, what's the difference between that and the actual employment of thugs? Nothing.

In addition, the mainstream media has reported nothing about this matter, and web portals cooperating with the government (that means all of them!) are deleting with amazing agility any post which refers to these issues. The same is true of the alleged death of a young woman due to police violence, which we wrote about a couple of days ago. All of this makes concerned citizens suspect even more that the government is trying to cover something up. Which only gives us one more reason to protest!

» Comments are Closed.