Several relatives of the 159 fatalities of the stampede that occurred during Halloween, in Itaewon, in the capital of South Korea, clashed this Saturday with the police authorities when they prevented them from installing a memorial in honor of the dead.
“We are very sorry that the police and the Seoul Metropolitan Government are trying to silence the voices of the families of the victims instead of remembering and paying tribute to them.”said a spokesman for the South Korean organization Lawyers for a Democratic Society, quoted by the Yonhap news agency.
A thousand protesters, including 150 relatives of the victims, marched this morning to Noksapyeong Station and Sejongno Street, where the authorities had stationed some 3,000 officers to prevent the installation of the shrine in Gwanghwamun Square.
When the protesters installed a memorial in that square in Seoul, in front of the city hall and Sejongno street, the police officers intervened, but ended up giving up in the face of popular resistance.
Later, some 70 officials tried to dismantle the makeshift memorial, but they also had to leave the site, according to Yonhap reports, cited by the Europapress agency.
One of the victims’ relatives became unconscious and was taken to a nearby hospital, according to eyewitnesses cited by the agencies.
At 2:10 p.m. local time (5:10 a.m. in mainland Portugal and Madeira), an act in memory of the victims began, in which about 5,000 people participated, occupying four of the six lanes.
The relatives of the victims wore a red scarf, which symbolizes the loss of a loved one, and a ribbon with four stars that represented the victims, relatives, survivors and rescuers.
At the rally, there was criticism for the politicization of the National Assembly’s commission of inquiry into the incident. The commission completed its work in 55 days.
On December 11, South Korea’s National Assembly passed a motion to remove Interior and Security Minister Lee Sang Min over the government’s failed response to the Itaewon Halloween disaster.
The vote had 182 votes in favor and one vote was declared null, when 150 votes were needed to approve. However, members of the ruling People’s Power Party (PPP) left the room before the voting process began.
On January 13 this year, 23 people were blamed for the stampede that caused 159 deaths in the South Korean capital, after a police investigation into the tragedy that occurred during the Halloween celebrations in Seoul.
The conclusions were announced that day and forwarded to the Public Ministry, and the 23 defendants can now face, among others, accusations of negligence.
Source: TSF
