SKorean officials probe clash that left 6 dead

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-21 19:57

SEOUL, South Korea -- Investigators were trying to determine Wednesday whether police officers used excessive force when they stormed a building in the South Korean capital to end a siege staged by displaced tenants and other protesters.

Police forensic team members search debris inside the five-storey building in Seoul on January 20, where six people were killed when police battled protesters. [Agencies]

President Lee Myung-bak expressed regret that six people died Tuesday during clashes between the protesters and the 14 squadrons of riot police and commandos sent into the building in central Seoul.

"It is very heartbreaking and lamentable that lives were lost," Lee said of the incident during a meeting with aides, according to the presidential office.

On Monday, about 40 local merchants, evicted to make way for plans to tear down dilapidated buildings in the Yongsan area of central Seoul, occupied the building to push for better compensation, a tenants' rights association said.

Police said they repeatedly warned the protesters to give up their arsenal of Molotov cocktails and bricks and leave the building. After issuing an ultimatum, authorities said, the commandos, backed by 1,400 riot police deployed nearby, entered the building to force the merchants out.

However, a fire sparked by the protesters' improvised explosives broke out during the standoff and engulfed the building within minutes, killing six people and injuring 23.

Four of the dead were identified as protesters and one was a police officer. A sixth body was burned beyond recognition and will undergo DNA testing, an official at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

On Wednesday, forensic experts combed the five-story building as human rights officials investigated whether police used excessive force.

"We are looking into whether police violated human rights" of protesters during the clash, said Yoon Seoul-ah, an official of the National Human Rights Commission.

The incident comes as Lee tries to win back public support amid an economic crisis and six months after weeks of violent street protests that erupted last year over the government's decision to allow US beef imports.

The main opposition Democratic Party urged Lee to offer an apology and to fire those responsible for the violence.

Tenants' advocates and human rights activists also condemned the government, shouting, "Lee Myung-bak, Step down!" outside a hospital where some of the injured were being treated.

Tuesday's clash was one of the most violent in recent years between police and protesters. The anti-government protests that broke out last year were violent but not fatal. Molotov cocktails were a common feature of the pro-democracy protests in South Korea in the 1980s but are rarely used against police today.