Bar Group Criticizes Police

The Korean Bar Association said at a news conference in Seoul on Thursday that Lee Moo-young, commissioner-general of the National Police Agency, should be held accountable for the overly aggressive tactics used by police to quell a strike at Daewoo Motor's Bupyeong factory on April 10.

"The deputy commissioner of the Inchon Municipal Police Agency and the Bupyeong police chief were both on the scene," said Park Yon-chul, the attorney who led the association's investigation into the incident. "This leads us to conclude that the violent crackdown was not the spontaneous action of a few policemen, but an order from the top."

The association conducted an eight-day investigation in which it interviewed witnesses and reviewed video tapes of the crackdown.

"Police action against the striking workers was carried out with little regard to safety or patience," Mr. Park said. "Those responsible should be penalized.

"It is beyond comprehension that police lashed out aggressively against workers who were lying on their backs," Mr. Park added.

The association, however, also found fault with the retaliation by workers.

"Physically assaulting and locking up a group of policemen goes far beyond the boundary of self-defense," Mr. Park said.

The Bupyeong factory is the defunct automaker's largest plant; 1,750 workers there were given pink slips in the nation's largest corporate layoff to date.

A standoff between the police and union members on April 10 developed into a melee when riot police wielded clubs and shields against 350 workers and the workers fought back.

The violence, recorded on video by union workers, triggered stinging public criticism of the police and calls for the commissioner-general to step down.

The association added that the high-ranking officers on the scene made no attempt to stop the violence once it broke out.

by Kim Seung-hyun