S. Korea Lawmakers Hold Sit-in Over Torture Inquiry

About 80 opposition members of the South Korean Parliament staged a sit-in Wednesday at the National Assembly to protest what they said was a government attempt to cover up the torture of political offenders, an opposition spokesman said.

Lawmakers of the New Korea Democratic Party left a special session called to discuss the death of a student in police custody and occupied a room near the chamber, demanding that Parliament be empowered to investigate the activities of government agencies.

The ruling Democratic Justice Party has agreed to form a special parliamentary committee to look into allegations of human rights abuses but has refused to agree that the committee could investigate police and prosecution departments.

The ruling party acknowledges a need for safeguards against future police human rights abuses but calls the opposition’s proposal unconstitutional.

Kim Hyon Kyu, the opposition party’s parliamentary leader, told reporters his party launched Wednesday’s protest because opposition members suspect that the ruling party sought to form a “committee in name only, without substance.”

Protest Day Planned

Most of the protesting lawmakers have pledged to take part next week in a planned nationwide day of protest against torture to mourn the death of Park Chong Chol, 21, under police interrogation.

Dissidents accuse police of using torture to make critics falsely confess to being pro-communist. The government denies this but has admitted that police tortured Park to death while questioning him on the whereabouts of a wanted radical. Two policemen are to go on trial in March on charges of killing the Seoul student earlier this month by plunging his head into a bathtub during questioning.

President Chun Doo Hwan fired his interior minister and national police chief over the incident.

Hundreds of students chanting “Down with dictatorship!” and “Step down murderer regime!” have clashed with riot police daily in the capital in the last week.