[Buddha-l] Perhaps the Buddhists in Korea have finally had it?

[Curt Steinmetz]

*Police Should Improve Methods to Deal With Protesters
*The Korea Times 10-08-2008

Amid the financial turmoil sweeping the world, the candlelight vigils 
that protested against U.S. beef imports here seem almost forgotten.

But some organizers of the two-month-long street protests are still 
using a major Buddhist temple as a sanctuary from the police, causing 
debates on the legality of popular demonstrations as well as the moral 
justification of law enforcement authorities clamping down on them.

Amnesty International's report on this matter released Monday is 
therefore a timely reminder of how the law enforcement officers of a 
self-claimed advanced democracy should have acted in those situations ― 
and how the Korean police failed to do so.

The report called for police to ``refrain from excessive use of force'' 
and improve rules regarding the riot police's allocation, training and 
use of force to meet international standards.

This seems to be a correct observation, considering there have been 
controversies on the police's use of water cannons, liquefied tear gas 
and undue physical force, which led to the fractured bones and broken 
noses of demonstrators, including women. It is the first time the human 
rights body made an official report on specific issues involving Korea, 
showing how seriously it considers the issue.

Government officials are refuting, not without reasons, the AI report as 
one-sided and favoring protesters, while failing to look at the harm 
caused on ordinary citizens and police. But justice in this regard has 
already been fully meted ― if not overly done ― with the police and 
prosecution investigating all organizations and individuals thought to 
have led the rallies, including civic groups, Web site operators, army 
reservists, teenagers in school uniforms and even women pushing baby 
carriages.

Most pitiable ― or rather comical ― was the summoning of three of those 
young mothers under the probable suspicion of using their own babies as 
shields. Even the governing Grand National Party criticized this absurd 
act as ``a show of excessive loyalty" (to President Lee Myung-bak).

It did not take long, however, for politicians to realize that the 
police chief actually understood the President's intention far better 
than party allies. Asked by opposition lawmakers to show leniency to the 
protest organizers, Lee made a rather irrelevant response, saying, 
``Mothers should not be allowed to carry their babies to street rallies. 
This is equivalent to a violation of the 'Child Protection Law.'" People 
could hardly believe their ears. Bringing babies to protests was the 
best expression of will to engage in peaceful rallies as well as a 
symbolic gesture that everything was for the next generation. Might the 
President have cited the ``Child Desertion Law" had they left their 
babies at home?

Such was the mentality behind what is seen as the political vendetta 
against organizers of the candlelight protests, which heated the 
southern half of the Korean Peninsula for two months in early summer, 
during which the President had to twice apologize for his mistakes.

This is no time for settling scores with anti-government protesters, nor 
to attempt to track down dissidents on- and off-line. Rather it is time 
to make the nation into one, with all-embracing moves and gestures if 
for no other purpose than tiding over the economic difficulties.

The AI report says in conclusion, ``The Korean government should revise 
laws to allow the people to exercise their rights to peacefully gather 
and express their views with no fears."

[link: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2008/10/202_32363.html ]

Curt