SEOUL: Thousands of people rallied in Seoul on Thursday, 100 days after South Korea’s ferry disaster, to push for an independent inquiry into the tragedy that claimed around 300 lives, most of them students.
The crowd included 600 family members of the victims and their supporters who had walked for two days from Ansan City, south of Seoul, carrying banners with slogans like: “How can you forget?.”
Of the 476 people on board the Sewol passenger ferry when it sank on April 16, 325 were students from Danwon High School in Danwon. Only 75 were rescued.
“We want parliament to pass a special law guaranteeing a thorough investigation into the sinking,” a leader of the families’ group told journalists.
The bill is currently stuck in the national assembly with rival political parties at loggerheads over what legal force any such investigation should have.
The relatives want any panel of inquiry to be endowed with prosecutorial powers.
The rally outside Seoul City Hall included a music concert in memory of the victims.
The Sewol disaster rocked South Korea and triggered a wave of anti-establishment feeling as initial investigations showed that greed, corruption and a lack of proper oversight had contributed to the tragedy.
There was fresh anger after police on Tuesday announced that a body found six weeks ago was that of the fugitive patriarch of the family that owned the Sewol who had been the target of a months-long manhunt
Yoo Byung-Eun, 73, became South Korea’s most wanted man following the ferry capsize and thousands of police and troops had been deployed in a nationwide dragnet.
When it turned out his badly decomposed body had been in a police morgue since June 12, the reaction toward the police was one of outraged ridicule.
Yoo’s family owned the ferry operator Chonghaejin Marine Co., and he was wanted for questioning over lax safety standards and regulatory violations.
More than three months after the Sewol sank, dive teams are still attempting daily searches of the submerged vessel for the bodies of remaining victims still unaccounted for.
Fifteen Sewol crew members are currently on trial, including the captain and three senior officers who are accused of “homicide through wilful negligence” — a charge that can carry the death penalty.
The bulk of the charges arise from the fact that they chose to abandon the ferry while hundreds of people were still trapped inside.
President Park Geun-Hye and her administration have been bitterly criticized for their response to the disaster.
100 days on, thousands mourn S. Korean ferry victims
100 days on, thousands mourn S. Korean ferry victims
Immigration agents draw guns, arrest activists following them in Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS: Immigration officers with guns drawn arrested some activists who were trailing their vehicles on Tuesday in Minneapolis, a sign that tensions have not eased since the departure last week of a high-profile commander.
At least one person who had an anti-ICE message on clothing was handcuffed while face-down on the ground. An Associated Press photographer witnessed the arrests.
Meanwhile, Tuesday was the deadline for the Minnesota governor, state attorney general and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul to produce documents to a federal grand jury in response to a Justice Department request for records of any effort to stifle the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Officials have denounced it as a bullying tactic.
Federal agents in the Twin Cities lately have been conducting more targeted immigration arrests at homes and neighborhoods, rather than staging in parking lots. The convoys have been harder to find and less aggressive. Alerts in activist group chats have been more about sightings than immigration-related detainments.
Several cars followed officers through south Minneapolis after there were reports of them knocking at homes. Officers stopped their vehicles and ordered activists to come out of a car at gunpoint. Agents told reporters at the scene to stay back and threatened to use pepper spray.
There was no immediate response to a request for comment from the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A federal judge last month put limits on how officers treat motorists who are following them but not obstructing their operations. Safely following agents “at an appropriate distance does not, by itself, create reasonable suspicion to justify a vehicle stop,” the judge said. An appeals court, however, set the order aside.
Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, who was leading an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis and other big US cities, left town last week, shortly after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, the second local killing of a US citizen in January.
Trump administration border czar Tom Homan was dispatched to Minnesota instead. He warned that protesters could face consequences if they interfere with officers.
Grand jury seeks communications, records
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s office said it was complying with a grand jury subpoena requesting documents about the city’s response to Operation Metro Surge, but it released no other details.
“We have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide, but when the federal government weaponizes the criminal justice system against political opponents, it’s important to stand up and fight back,” spokesperson Ally Peters said.
Other state and local offices run by Democrats were given similar requests. People familiar with the matter have told the AP that the subpoenas are related to an investigation into whether Minnesota officials obstructed enforcement through public statements.
No bond for man in Omar incident
Elsewhere, a man charged with squirting apple cider vinegar on Democratic US Rep. Ilhan Omar will remain in jail. US Magistrate Judge David Schultz granted a federal prosecutor’s request to deny bond to Anthony Kazmierczak.
“We simply cannot have protesters and people — whatever side of the aisle they’re on — running up to representatives who are conducting official business, and holding town halls, and assaulting them,” Assistant US Attorney Benjamin Bejar said Tuesday.
Defense attorney John Fossum said the vinegar posed a low risk to Omar. He said Kazmierczak’s health problems weren’t being properly addressed in jail and that his release would be appropriate.
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Raza reported from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. AP reporters Ed White in Detroit and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed.
