SOUTH KOREA: FIFTH DAY OF STUDENT PROTESTS

Описание: (17 Aug 1996) Korean/Nat

More than one thousand South Korean students and police have been injured, in the ongoing fighting between the two sides at a university campus in Seoul.

After five days of clashes at Yosnei University, students and police were at a standoff - many exhausted by the fighting.

The government has vowed to keep up the pressure and eliminate the pro-North Korean movement on the University campus.

The conflict has pitted young men against each other - the riot police are military draftees the same age as the students they are fighting.

Yonsei University has had its share of tear gas poured down on it and enough rocks thrown in and around campus.

For the fifth straight day, students and police are face-to- face in a battle: students now want to go home, the police are keeping them in until the ringleaders are under arrest.

Students claim they wanted to hold a peaceful unification rally on campus and then march toward the border to greet two fellow students returning from North Korea.

The government promptly ordered the police on alert and outlawed the rally as pro-North Korea, thus breaking the National Security Law.

Since the fighting began on Monday, hundreds of students and riot police have been injured and damage to the campus is huge.

In what can only be seen as a political clash of wills, riot police are fighting students who could be their colleagues, friends or even brothers.

Riot police are military draftees serving out their mandatory service.

All South Korean males must serve one year in the military after they graduate from high school unless they are able to go to college.

The riot police are simply following orders and clearly, their tolerance level is dropping.

Some of them are so tired that they nod off while standing on guard. They sleep wherever they can, whenever they can.

Their protective gear may keep the tear gas out and prevent the flying rocks from leaving bruises on their bodies, but it also acts as a steam sauna in the sweltering summer heat. Temperatures go as high as 38 degrees Celsius during August in South Korea.

In between the fighting, they check people for IDs and passing cars in case loads of empty bottles or other materials used in the fighting are brought in.

Many are injured during the fighting. This man injured his left forearm during a one-on- one clash with a metal pipe wielding student.

SOUNDBITE: (KOREAN) "I got hit by a metal pipe during a demonstration." SUPER CAPTION: RIOT POLICEMAN

At the order of his superior who yelled "Gas!", he quickly rose and put on his gas mask.

Although on different sides, it is the same story with the students held captive on their campus. They are tired. They are bruised. They want to go home.

But they are not being allowed to leave because the student leaders have not yet been arrested.

Students do not have the riot gear. T-shirts and improvised masks are all that they wear to protect themselves from the tear gas and the rocks.

Their injuries range from rashes on forearms and other exposed areas to severe blisters.

Others have head injuries from flying rocks. The first aid provided is simple: many participate in the riots with just a bandage on their wounds and ointment on the rashes.

The students don't want to continue fighting and although they had captured riot policemen during clashes on campus, they quickly let them go.

The press has been giving the rally negative coverage. Students and some citizens voiced complaints to reporters to which they get angry replies.






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