Rally against US beef sweeps nation
Korea Times 05-09-2008
Rally Against US Beef Sweeps Nation
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Tens of thousands of people held another candlelit vigil Friday night, demanding the government scrap the agreement to import most U.S. beef.
Members of about 1,500 progressive civic groups and Internet cafes packed a plaza and alleys surrounding Cheonggye stream in downtown Seoul amid mounting public anger against the resumption of U.S. beef imports.
At the same time, members of hundreds of conservative organizations also held rallies in support of the government, claiming left-leaning organizations are instigating the vigil against U.S. beef imports.
To ease public concerns, the government has reversed its earlier stance and pledged to suspend imports if a case of mad cow disease is detected in the United States and possibly could seek revision of a Korea-U.S. agreement in such case.
However, the assurances proposed by the government failed to calm the protesters. Seoul was not the only place for the no mad cow'' campaign. More than 10 cities across the country including Incheon, Suwon in Gyeonggi Province, Daejeon, Busan and Jeonju held candlelit vigils also.
People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a central organizing group in the campaign, stressed that nobody encouraged people to participate in the movement and every individual voluntarily joined including a large number of young students.
Civic groups criticized education authorities for banning students from participating in the campaign. In a media conference, Chung Jin-hwa, chairperson of the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers' Union, requested the Education Ministry to give up its plan to distribute materials to schools that say American beef is safe.
Otherwise, she warned that the group will distribute their own material showing the danger of mad cows. Commenting on the remarks by Seoul's top educator Kong Jeong-taek that some teachers in the group are encouraging students to participate in the rally, Chung said,Kong defamed the teachers’ organization and he should take responsibility for his words.’’
In addition, she pledged to request heads of each school promise that they will not provide U.S. beef with a possibility of containing mad cow diseases to the school restaurants.
Internet cafe members, professors’ groups and some doctors said that they will fight against the government until the beef deal between the two countries is scrapped.
Korea agreed with the U.S. last month to lift almost all restrictions on American beef imports, which were imposed in late 2003 after the first of its three mad cow cases was confirmed in the state of Washington.
The agreement, unveiled on the eve of Lee’s first summit with U.S. President George W. Bush, was largely considered as Seoul’s concession to get a bilateral free trade agreement passed in the U.S. Congress.
