Politics in the Streets : In Seoul, It’s Students Against Darth Vaders

In a country purged of normal politics by an authoritarian government, national issues are often taken to the streets.

Since the anti-government protests broke out June 10, student leaders have put more than 100,000 followers into street demonstrations. Word was passed on Seoul’s more than 20 college campuses, and for Friday night’s demonstrations leaflets were distributed downtown asking for support and designating assembly points.

Little else is known about the organization of an off-campus demonstration.

“Two of the more secretive organizations in this country are the military and the radical students,” a Western diplomat said Friday. “No doubt there’s some organization (in the student movement). But frankly I don’t think even the government intelligence knows much about it.”

The students fall into two groups. The majority are moderates, willing to demonstrate but wary of violence. The radical minority--”hotheads,” the diplomat called them--are politically committed, tough and show no reluctance to mix it up with police.

Divisions between the two groups are overcome by a common political viewpoint on the campuses--opposition to the government of President Chun Doo Hwan, which is dominated by former military officers, and in some instances opposition to U.S. government policies.

“It’s very easy to get 20,000 for a rally at Yonsei University,” the diplomat said. “There’s not that many contending ideas.”

Facing student protesters in the streets are at least two elements of the 120,000-man national police:

--Combat or riot police, who wear military-style uniforms, with boots and leggings. They are armed with tear gas, night sticks and heavy four-foot-high riot shields. Their headgear is a black plastic helmet with a full visor and a fabric neck protector that unfolds from within the helmet, creating the appearance of a feudal Japanese cavalryman. A more recent likeness has earned them the nickname “Darth Vaders.”

--Plainclothes police, armed with tear-gas grenades and martial-arts skills, who also wear a uniform of sorts--in recent weeks, matching light windbreakers, tennis shoes and raspberry-pink crash helmets. In running street battles, their job is to catch the protest leaders and stone-throwers. The students call them “the grabbers.”

Police strategy is to contain demonstrators within an area, throwing lines of riot police across streets and alleys, where they set up a picket with their shields. Both the riot and plainclothes police, moving two or three abreast in columns, occasionally clear the sidewalks of bystanders.

The confrontation begins when a crowd of students moves into a street to face the police lines. Point men lead the students in anti-government chants, edging closer to the police. The cops strap on gas masks, and the students pull kerchiefs or surgical masks over their mouths and noses. The two sides close to about 75 yards.

Reports vary, but generally the police strike first, tossing or firing tear gas into the students’ ranks to disperse them. The radicals stand their ground. Then, taking a short running start like a javelin thrower, they hurl rocks and firebombs--gasoline-filled bottles with burning cloth fuses--into the ranks of shielded police.

The police respond with volleys of tear gas: hand-thrown “apple” grenades or shotgun-fired canisters. Regulations require police to aim high, exploding the gas grenades over the students’ heads, but in the heat of a clash they have fired canisters directly at the demonstrators or bounced them along the pavement.

Direct hits by exploding canisters cause serious injury. Rocks are the greatest physical threat to the police; the arcing firebombs are fairly easy to dodge.

The standoff usually breaks up when the grabbers rush the students through the police lines or from a side alley. Few demonstrators are corraled. At the first sign of a police surge, they r1702130277regroup minutes later at some other point.

In some instances, however, the struggle is hand-to-hand. Outnumbered police have been encircled, stripped of their gear and uniforms and pummeled by radical students. The police, particularly the grabbers, are rougher still on occasion, punching and kicking felled students or bashing them with riot shields.

Of all the weapons in a Seoul street clash, tear gas is the most controversial. First it fills the nose with a burning sensation, then it brings tears to the eyes. In heavy concentrations, a breath of it is choking. The government has not disclosed the chemical used, but observers note that it is far stronger than riot-control gas used in other countries.

On Thursday, Roman Catholic Cardinal Stephen Kim, whose cathedral in the Myongdong district was swamped with tear gas in the first week of the protests, raised the issue in his meeting with President Chun.

“We were greatly troubled by tear gas because demonstrations were staged around the cathedral every day,” the prelate told the president. “I wonder if a tear gas that causes tears to flow but that does no harm to the human body can be invented?”

“In developed countries,” Chun responded, “the police use not only tear gas but also billy clubs and even firearms. We abolished the billy club a long time ago and the police are trying to use defensive methods to put down demonstrations.

“If we are to abolish tear gas, there should be no demonstrations. Don’t you agree?”

The demonstrators turn the question around. If the government would not declare demonstrations illegal and let the students march, would there be any violence?

The government, so far, is not willing to find out.