Tension mounts over anti-FTA rallies

Tensions are escalating as activists prepare to stage massive rallies against the ongoing free trade negotiations between Korea and the United States as talks resumed in Seoul yesterday.

Civic activists and members of the minor Democratic Labor Party skirmished with riot police at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul in the morning as they tried to storm the main venue for the sixth round of the FTA talks.

Nine DLP members, including Reps. Kwon Young-gil and Sim Sang-jung, launched a five-day hunger strike demanding the immediate halt of talks.

The Korean Alliance against the Korea-U.S. FTA, a coalition of civic groups, said it would stage a series of demonstrations during the five-day negotiations despite a police ban.

"The Korean government has gained nothing during the past year of negotiations which have been kept secret from the public. There is no reason for the talks to go on," the alliance said in a news conference in front of the hotel.

<**1>

The alliance held a candlelight rally in central Seoul yesterday in preparation for today`s massive protest.

The group had already launched a protest rally at Incheon International Airport as Wendy Cutler, a top U.S. negotiator, arrived in Korea on Sunday.

The group expects about 20,000 farmers and workers to face off against 2,000 riot police in demonstrations planned for Daehakno, Seoul, today.

As police banned all protest rallies organized by civic groups - citing fears of violence and traffic congestion - the radical DLP yesterday applied for a demonstration permit under its name.

"Although we expect the demonstration to turn into a collaborated rally of all anti-FTA groups as was the case last December, we could not refuse the party`s request according to the demonstration law," police said.

The anti-FTA demonstrations are to continue throughout the five-day negotiations with farmers planning large-scale protests tomorrow and Wednesday.

Police are vowing to crackdown on illegal protestors in the wake of last year`s violent anti-FTA rallies which injured over 60 people, causing some 670 million won ($720,000) in property damage nationwide.

A group of Oriental medicine doctors also held a press conference yesterday to reaffirm their opposition to a possible market opening.

Members of the Association of Korean Oriental Medicine said that they would take every possible means to block the market opening, reportedly on the negotiation table for the free trade agreement with Washington.

Washington has reportedly asked Seoul to allow its medical doctors to practice here without having to obtain a new local business license. The Korean government, however, has made clear that the issue is not being discussed during the sixth round of talks.

Seoul and Washington have held five rounds of discussions so far on the proposed FTA, aiming to conclude the talks by March 2007 at the latest.

Korea`s anti-FTA activists and farmers are opposed to the talks, fearing that the deal will damage their livelihoods by enabling a flood of cheap U.S. farm products to enter the country.

(hayney@heraldm.com)



By Shin Hae-in