As if we ever needed any further evidence that Amnesty International is a joke well we got more of it:
Amnesty International on Friday criticized the South Korean government for using excessive force against people protesting against U.S. beef imports and called for an immediate investigation into allegations of human rights abuses.
Wrapping up a two-week inquiry into the government’s handling of the months-long protests, the London-based rights watchdog called the candlelight rallies “an impressive tribute” to South Korean democracy. [Yonhap]
Here is an excerpt from the actual Amnesty International report filed by Norma Kang Muico:
“The government should demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law by ensuring accountability for any police officers who used excessive force and providing due process for protesters who face criminal charges,” said Norma Kang Muico, Amnesty International Researcher.
“Generally, both the protesters and the police showed remarkable organization and constraint. These protests, and the response to them, generally show the strength of South Korea’s civil society as well as its legal institutions, but we have documented several instances of human rights violations.” [Amnesty.org]
Notice how Ms. Muico doesn’t seem to care about the human rights of the young mandatory service riot policemen that are assaulted and beaten down by the thugs that were protesting. This is all she had to say in regards to the violence from the protesters:
Since early May, tens of thousands of protesters have demonstrated against the renewal of US beef imports over fears of BSE or mad cow disease. The protests, often involving crowds as large as 10,000, were largely peaceful, but there were incidents of violence as riot police sought to control surging crowds and some protesters attacked and vandalized police vehicles.
First all what is interesting is that she documents that out of all the the protests, the crowds only reached the size of 10,000 people which is not true. The Korean police have documented crowds in the tens of thousands, so just the fact that she can’t get simple information such as the size of the crowds right draws into question the accuracy of everything else she is reporting.
Secondly she only mentions that the protesters attacked and vandalized police vehicles. No where does she mention the unprovoked assaults on policemen, throwing objects at the police to include bottles of urine, shooting acid at them with water guns, the destruction of property, and the fact that the protesters were trying to storm the Korean Blue House and that is why the riot police buses were there in the first place. There was a whole lot more then just vandalizing of police vehicles going on.
Here is Ms. Muico’s complaints against the South Korean government:
During candlelight vigils held on 31 May and 1 June, police used fire extinguishers and water cannons fired at close range against largely peaceful demonstrators, causing serious injuries such as blindness, broken bones and concussions.
Amnesty International’s investigation indicated that:
- In some instances, police used excessive force and abused non-lethal riot control devices such as water cannons and fire extinguishers;
- Police engaged in arbitrary arrests of protesters and onlookers;
- Some detainees were subjected to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment, including a lack of adequate medical care;
- The Korean government has not yet carried out adequate investigations of these claims.
Let’s once again see, no mention that some of the protesters were using their own water cannons to fire at the riot police as well as some of the protesters detaining and beating policemen as well.
Here is one of the examples Ms. Muico showed in here report:
Another case involved a 14-year-old boy who participated in the vigils with his mother, fellow classmates and teachers. When the police surged into the crowd, they ran onto the pavement for safety. A police officer hit the boy with a shield in the back of his head while the boy was running away. He fainted and his head was bleeding heavily. He was taken to the Yonsei Severance Hospital where doctors stitched his cut.
Reading this the first thing that pops to mind is why was a mother bring a child to violent protest in the first place? This is something I have been criticizing for quite some time. These protesters actually want women and children to get hurt in these protests in order for people like Ms. Muico from Amnesty International to complain about police abuse.
Here is how she concludes her report:
“These protests involved citizens making their point strongly but in large part peacefully. What they were met with, however, was excessive force by their own government, and that deserves a more thorough investigation,” said Norma Kang Muico.
Once again not one mention of the excessive force from the protesters that were instigating the actions from the policemen. No mention of the mob assaulting counter-demonstrators. No mention of the destruction of private property as the mob raided newspaper offices they tried to intimidate into silence.
To miss all of what happened proves that either Ms. Muico is blind, ignorant, incompetent, or willfully ignoring the full story of what happened during the beef protests. Whatever the reasoning it doesn’t look favorably upon Ms. Muico or Amnesty International.
Popularity: 2%
2:26 am on July 21st, 2008 1
I actually contacted AI at the start of their investigation and told them that I had attended the protests regularly, and also showed them some of my writing on them. They simply ignored me. One would think that as neither a protester or policeman I would be more objective than most, but AI had already made up their mind, it seems.
Last night (Saturday), a group of about 750 dead-enders occupied Chongno-1-ga right in front of my home until early morning. On several occasions, groups of young men fired roman candles directly into the police line. The police did nothing in response but hold up their shields for protection. The second time this happened, after about two minutes of being showered by roman candles, the police shot a few squirts from the water cannon at half blast, mainly to try to scare the roman-candle holders away. After about 5 seconds, the police turned off the water cannon and no one was actually hit. However, although the crowd said nothing when the police were being sprayed by roman candles (many cheered and laughed, in fact), as soon as the water cannon started up they were all shrieking “Violent police! No violence!” like the hypocrites they have often been.
I wonder how Ms. Muico would feel if a group of young men fired roman candles directly at her for several minutes?
4:01 am on July 21st, 2008 2
King Baeksu,
Are you sure of them shooting the roman candles at the police? The video clips at Hankyoreh and Kyunghyang showed them firing the roman candles in the air — and it looked like there were people making sure they stayed pointed up. Just wondering if those were censored clips.
Protest (19 Jul 2008) (Kyunghyang News)
Protest (19 Jul 2008) (Hankyoreh News)
GI,
The police already knew where AI was headed with her “report.” This is why they and the Justice Ministry refused to allow her to interview on of the protest organizers that was in jail. AI for many years has published damning reports on people who have been imprisoned due to the National Security Law (NSL) — some of whom were caught red-handed as spies. During the Daechuri violence, the AI “inspectors” did the same trick of interviewing one of the jailed protest leaders and turning the report against the police. They are usually called in when things are going badly for the progressives bloody riots. They try to use the AI to gain some international “respectability” by appearing to be fighting an oppressive government.
I’ve been tracking these protests (with photos and links to video clips) from the start. Ms. Muico was not blind. She came to write the type of report she wrote.
I only hope the LMB administration take her to court and sue the AI for libel. With all the precedents of their actions in Korea in the past, it shouldn’t be hard to show a pattern.
4:07 am on July 21st, 2008 3
Whoops…the links above don’t work. Sorry…
http://play.tagstory.com/player/TS00@V000218394@S000000200 (Kyunghyang)
http://play.tagstory.com/player/TS00@V000218409@S000000200 (Hankyoreh)
6:21 am on July 21st, 2008 4
King Baeksu thanks for the info. AI is a disgrace and the biggest human rights violation I see going on is the young men being forced into conscripted service as riot police to be treated as human punching bags.
Thanks for the links Kalani. Everyone just looked miserable out there in that rain. If you look closely some of the roman candles did land in the police line though the majority of them appeared to go above them. The water cannon firing for five seconds I thought was funny considering the water pressure from the rain was probably higher then the water cannon.
Your suggestion of suing them for libel is interesting but then AI will just come back and claim the government is violating their human rights for political reasons.
10:06 am on July 21st, 2008 5
Amnesty International cited for excessive use of farce.
1:38 pm on July 21st, 2008 6
Hi Kalani, you raise an interesting point. When I was there I saw three separate incidents involving roman candles being shot towards the police and each time they got closer to the police and aimed lower each time. The Kyunghyang clip only shows the first or second time but not the most extreme case; Hankyoreh shows the final instance but they only showed a second or two of the roman candles and the three guys did it for about two minutes and especially when they started they were definitely hitting the police: They aimed about 1 foot above the heads of the police at the front of the line but the police barricade was probably ten lines deep so the roman candles were definitely falling on the guys in the middle and in the back as they were on the descent of their trajectory.
Whar’s interesting is that during the last roman-candle incident, there was a 4-person KBS camera crew sitting on the pavement nearby but when the three roman-candle shooters started firing away, they didn’t bother to stand up and start filming. So I asked them in Korean, “Why don’t you film that?” and they just ignored me. Then later when the water cannon started up they rushed up and started filming the water cannon. So I asked them again, “Why are you only filming the water cannon but not the other side? You’re lying!” and they said, “Oh, we filmed that before.” Well, even if it’s true, that goes back to what I described above: The last instance of roman-candle shooting was much more extreme than the others. Certainly the Kyunghyang video follows this pattern and the Hankyoreh does to a lesser and much more subtle extent. The Hankyoreh has been nothing but an uncritical supporter of the demonstrations from the start so of course they weren’t going to show the protesters actually shooting the police directly with roman candles if they could at all help it.
I have so many stories like this of subtle media propaganda and manipulation I could write all day, and also have plenty of photos including protesters wielding pipes and holding captured police in circles (where they were often attacked by other protesters). The bottom line is that the protesters did all they could to provoke the police time and time again, in the hope that the police would lash back and create shocking images for the media which would in turn generate broader public support for their cause. In the end, this propaganda aim almost became an end in and of itself, which is why I consider many of the protesters to be such shameless hypocrites whenever they started whining about the “violent police.” An equivalent analogy would be if you went up to someone in a bar and spit on their face for no reason, and then after being punched in the face by that person, started whining to all the other patrons in the bar about what a “poor victim” you were.
The other thing that pissed me off on Saturday was the amount of garbage the protesters left on the street in front of my home after they left. They normally picked up their garbage at the protests in order to maintain a “good image” for themselves but I guess since the public no longer supports them they don’t care if they leave a big mess any more. Which again shows what hypocrites they are, since picking up the garbage was apparently just a PR thing rather than something right in and of itself. The poor ajosshi who runs the convenience shop I go to every day probably spent hours picking up and scraping off all the garbage in front of his store.
4:09 pm on July 21st, 2008 7
Response to #6: This is exactly why I no longer watch MBC or KBS.
4:19 pm on July 21st, 2008 8
Would it be hard to keep several bus loads of riot police in reserve and then coordinating a 4-way road block? I know the courts don’t do anything, but at least the police will be able to round up a bunch of these troublemakers for ID and future recruitment.
7:16 pm on July 21st, 2008 9
Dear GI,
Today I knew for the first time this site exists and I found it quite interesting.
I am in fact an active Korean police officer happens to be having quite a headache dealing with all those recent BS accusations manufactured by AI.
Let me ask you, would be ok if I use (quote) some of the points you have made in this posting as I am currently drafting a protest letter to AI London in relation to Ms.Muico’s press recent release.
7:43 pm on July 21st, 2008 10
Hey Kenny, when you write your letter to AI why don’t you ask them why they ignored the email I sent them at the start of their investigation, including a link to this article I wrote about the violence issue?:
http://www.kingbaeksu.com/bbs/view.php?id=bug&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=1157
I was at every major demonstration since I live in Chongno-ga-1. I’ve also been a professional writer for 20 years and take great pains to be as accurate as possible in what I see and write about. I’ll bet I could easily write a more objective report than Ms. Muico since I’ve seen everything from the start as was neither an active protester nor a policeman but merely a third-party observer. I also have several photographs of police being either dragged to the ground or captured by protesters, although those are easy enough to find online if you only care to look.
A majority of protesters were non-violent but I certainly saw several policemen being hit or attacked by protesters. In most cases the police could not even defend themselves because they were pinned in a circle by protesters and then other protesters would run up from behind and hit them in the back or from the side before the police could deflect the blows. I also saw numerous cases of protesters hitting police with either metal pipes or wooden sticks, usually when the protesters were trying to pull away the buses. Of course, in a few cases some riot police responded too aggressively perhaps, but these were isolated incidents and in general the police were remarkably restrained and patient in dealing with such a volatile situation.
All in all, I think the police handled a very difficult situation pretty well and it’s sad that AI has simply produced more propaganda for the protesters to exploit in whatever way they can.
8:20 pm on July 21st, 2008 11
Kenny thanks for visiting and feel free to use any content on the webpage. I have great respect for the riot policemen that have done a good job handling the protests despite the abuse and provocations leveled against them.
I highly recommend you read the postings from King Baeksu as well who probably has the most accurate information in regards to the activities of the protesters since he has been an eyewitness to all the major protests.
Good luck with your letter.
11:50 pm on July 21st, 2008 12
Scott, it must be taxing on your soul to have spent so much of your recent time around these pathetic, hypocrite losers. Kevin was trying to convince me that the demonstrations were displays of ‘people power’ and I should go and see for myself. I refused and told him that hate groups were manipulating the Korean public from the start and the thought of pretending I give a toss about such a bullshit manufactured ‘issue’ when 22 million are living in slavery in North Korea absurb. Quite frankly I’m not surprised that Koreans being the lemmings they are swallowed up any shit they WANTED to believe but I was far more surprised that Kevin did too.
Anyway I attended an event at the Seoul Foreign Correspondence Club to promote the cyling through Europe of Norbert Volersteen, Tim Peters and assorted North and South Koreans to highlight and put pressure on China to stop repatriating North Koreans in the run up to the Olympics and so out of curiosity wandered down to the demo. The date was Jun 25 (the anniversary of the start of the Korean War) and I saw a lone demonstrator in favour of US beef-an eldery man- surrounded by the gutless thugs and need to be escorted away by the police in a police car. I saw people trying to attack the Chosun Ilbo and throwing trash at the building. I heard some dumb bitch on the microphone saying that ‘today is the start of the second Korean War’. And this was in 20 minutes! I didn’t see any violence myself but that night was particulary violent.
I can say I was extemely disgusted by the manipulation and lies of the Korean media and hypocrisy of Korean during the hate-fest of 2002 but this has disgusted me even more. I’ve enjoyed your first hand unbiased account of what has really happened and hope that this most sorry chapter in Korea’s short democratic history is yesterday’s news.
2:03 am on July 22nd, 2008 13
It would have been nice if at some point the police commanders had just decided that it was just as well to be hanged for a sheep as for a goat, and started whacking away.
They used to have the so-called “baek-gol” guys who who target the egregious troublemakers, then run out from the police line, grab them, and haul them back in behind the police line for some processing.
2:40 am on July 22nd, 2008 14
Brendan, well, it was an interesting learning experience, and what I learned most of all is that people here need to start listening to each other more than they do now. I mean, why are there so many protests in Korea? Because people feel that they’re not being listened to. The ironic thing, however, is that the people demanding to be listened to rarely seem willing to listen to the other side, it often seems.
For what it’s worth, I did talk to a lot of people and did bring up North Korea as often as I could. I’m not sure how much impact I had but at least I gave it a shot. Several people did concede that it was rather selfish to protest about the miniscule chance of getting mad-cow disease when so many people in the North barely had any food at all. And another guy I spoke with on Sat. night who was pretty cool admitted that he had not yet managed to process his feelings about the recent shooting of Park Wang-ja, and that as a result he felt rather uncomfortable about that.
Anyway, I hope the next 4 years here are not like the last 3 months, or else this country is surely headed for the gutter. It’s quite sad when you think about confused and just plain bitter this country really is. Too much messed up history, I guess.
7:59 pm on July 23rd, 2008 15
GI,
I appreciate it. some of the postings here in this site really helped me drafting my work.
and thanks Baeksu for your kind words about me and my colleagues. People like you are the ones who get us going amongst this madness.
8:07 pm on July 23rd, 2008 16
and BOB,
by the way from where did you know that korean riot police used to run an apprehension team called ‘baekgol’ which refers to. how long have you been living here in korea? welll, my guess is perhaps ‘toooo long’ ^^
actually the term ‘baekgol’(means ‘white skeleton’ in korean) was used by protesters to give the team a dirty name.
just for your info.
8:35 pm on July 23rd, 2008 17
Kenny, my real name is J. Scott Burgeson and you are welcome to quote me by name if you like. I wrote another long email to AI and triple sent it but they have continued to ignore me. Good luck with your work!
11:36 am on July 24th, 2008 18
Scott,
It sure sucks knowing that you are being ignored by someone, doesn’t it? Let’s just think that AI is too busy doing a noble business as ‘Global Human Rights’ to respond any letters by less-noble commoners like ourselves.
Anyways, would you mind letting me have a copy of that email you said you triple sent to AI so I might borrow some of your points as well. thanks.
11:38 am on July 24th, 2008 19
Scott,
I forgot to leave my email. Just in case you let me have that letter, my email add. is zpibkj30@hotmail.com
7:11 am on September 20th, 2008 20
[...] people like Choi Sung-yong also show what a fraud groups like Amnesty International are. They keep themselves busy issuing reports championing the idiotic US beef protesters, but [...]