Lee Myung Bak Regime Accused of Its Dictatorship and Human Rights Abuses

Pyongyang, January 18 (KCNA) -- It is nearly four years since the killing of evacuees in Ryongsan which touched off indignation among south Korean people.
    The mass killing in Ryongsan which took place in January of 2009 was a tragedy caused by traitor Lee Myung Bak regime's policy of abusing human rights.
    At that time the Lee group forcefully evacuated residents in Ryongsan District of Seoul in cold winter days under the signboard of "development".
    When the evacuees protested against the group through a sit-in strike in demand of the elementary right to existence, the Lee regime labeled the action illegal and hurled huge police and commando force into a repressive operation.
    Finally, they conducted even a fire-attack operation, leaving five people dead and a lot of protestors wounded.
    The murderers made autopsy of the burnt bodies before showing them to their bereaved families and left skulls, gums, etc. broken, making it hard to recognize their shapes.
    It is nearly four years since the Ryongsan tragedy, a probe into the truth about it has not yet been made and the protestors who fought for their right to existence are suffering pain behind bars.
    This is just a tip of iceberg of human rights abuses committed by the Lee group.
    Its suppression of the candlelight demonstrations of south Korean people against the import of American beef infected with mad cow disease in 2008 is still making people shake with resentment.
    By repressive order of traitor Lee the fascist police ran wild like brutes, cracking down upon demonstrators with clubs and shields and using electric guns and water cannon. A girl student was trampled down by jackboots and heads of civilians were left broken and even housewives and babies on kiddy cars were exposed to tear gas. Lawmakers from opposition parties who had tried to stop the crackdown and media persons were bitten by police. A resident died due to torture.
    During candlelight demonstrations the puppet prosecution released more than 52 300 warrants for search and at least 2 500 people were walked off and more than 3 000 others were left wounded.
    1 842 political parties and organizations were branded as ones which organized illegal and violent demonstrations and families of those demonstrators fell victim to the suppression.
    In the summer of 2009 the Lee group brutally suppressed the workers of Ssangyong Motors in Phyongthaek City, Kyonggi Province for their actions against massive dismissal.
    The group suspended the supply of electricity, water and food to more than 900 workers on a sit-in strike for more than 70 days in an attempt to choke them. Then, thousands of policemen and gangsters mercilessly cracked down upon the protesters by mobilizing helicopters and armored cars.
    The repressive operation left over 300 sit-in strikers wounded and forced four workers and their families to commit suicides or die of heart attack. 96 protesters were walked off.
    The south Korean public circles and media protested against it as follows: "Ssangyong Motors is a huge scene of human rights abuses", "It reminds one of the Kwangju incident in 1980" and "It is horrible massacre putting the genocide perpetrated by the military dictatorial group into the shade."
    Moreover, the fascist regime mercilessly suppressed actions of south Koreans from all walks life for defending their vital rights such as ones staged by the Freight Workers' Solidarity, Government Employees' Union, Railway Workers' Union, south Korean Teachers Union and the action of university students for having the registration fee halved.
    That was why the south Korean people bitterly condemned the conservative regime for pursuing a "barbarous and frantic terror policy", "policy violating democracy and killing common people," while calling Lee Hitler of Nazi Germany.
    There are too many examples to cite sinister political plots and retaliatory actions that forced even an ex-president to die in despair, gag on the press and the campaign to crack down upon the democratic forces conducted under the pretext of "eliminating the forces following the north".
    No wonder, the majority of junior and senior high schoolers said that they wanted to live abroad out of their extreme disillusion about south Korean society.
    The human rights situation in south Korea has reached the worst phase in history.
    The Lee regime has been talkative about human rights during its office but the situation showed that it put the erstwhile military fascist gangsters into the shade in human rights abuses.
    As regards this situation, a publication of south Korea said:
    The existence of the Lee Myung Bak regime itself serves as a lethal weapon. In a word it is a group of those who refused to remain human beings. The regime is a violent group regarding the weak in society as an enemy and the fascist regime suppressing and arresting those advocating democracy.
    It has become a monster for its greed for capital and power. Lee Myung Bak is the main culprit of all tragedies. The only thing he does well is spadework.
    His single spadework brings more profits to the rich while worsening the living of the poor. Worse still, they fall victim to his spade.
    The five years of Lee's office is, indeed, a period of nightmare, horror and despair as he turned south Korea into a tundra of democracy and human rights.
    The human rights abuses of Lee will never be pardoned. -0-