Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Buses, Buses, Buses



Today's anti-FTA events were not as big as last week's. The government sealed the entire city hall park with riot buses, leaving groups with no place to rally. A few thousand gathered in front of Lotte department store down the street from city hall, and there were small confrontations between the police and demonstrations, mostly the throwing of some cabbages and a few police charges. The demonstrators eventually were moved into Myoung Dong near the Cathedral where a vigil was/is being held at time of writing.

Another reason why the protests were smaller than anticipated is because police were mobilized at toll stations on the highways around the country, making it nearly impossible for protest buses to get through on the highway. The picture above is from a redian story (in Korean). Yonhap news also reported that over 200 buses full of farmers were sent back at a number of toll booths. That's a pretty aggressive crackdown.

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