Korean peasants and rally organisers demand action and apology for police heavy-handedness
Korean Peasants League, Korea Women Peasant Association, CCFM and other organizers of the rally demand action
(Seoul, December 2015) On 14 November, police, without any legitimate reason, banned People’s Rally where about 130,000 demonstrators had gathered. They violated freedom of assembly by setting up the police bus wall in violation of the Constitution as stated in the ruling by the Supreme Court.
It was outrageous that police used high pressure water cannon mixing high levels of capsaicin targeting directly demonstrators’ faces at the Rally.
Therefore, a 69 year-old farmer, Mr BAEK Nam-gi remains unconscious at a hospital after he fell down and injured his head as police doused him with water cannon. When other demonstrators struggled to drag him away and to put him in the ambulance, police continued to fire water cannon. Other participants also were severely injured, some with bone fractures and bleeding eyeballs.
Police crackdown on demonstrators was definitely regarded as a murder attempt.
Therefore, we demand while wishing him complete recovery the following:
1. NPA Commissioner General must step down being responsible for murderous crackdown and those concerned must be punished
2. President Park Geun-hye must apologize for this murderous crackdown
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Why, Mr Baek Nam-gi, a Korean farmer, why participated in the rally