Police under fire over investigation of anti-beef mothers By Kim Hyun

SEOUL, Sept. 24 (Yonhap) -- Reflecting the government's resolve to crack down on
illegal street protests, police are widening their reinforced policies to include
unlikely targets: mothers pushing baby strollers.
Police are investigating three young mothers who brought their children to join
alongside thousands protesting a U.S. beef imports agreement in candlelight
rallies in Seoul this summer. The mothers are accused of exceeding a government
curfew limiting rallies to before nightfall, obstructing traffic, and child
abuse.
"The suspects helped instigate the illegal candlelight rallies by mobilizing
mothers to attend the rallies while carrying their babies," the Seoul
Metropolitan Police Agency said in a statement this week.
Police crackdowns on illegal protests have drawn mixed reactions, but the latest
investigation has received virtually unanimous criticism from almost all sides
for preying on vulnerable targets in an attempt to please the conservative
government.
Police Commissioner Eo Cheong-soo added fuel to the fire when he vowed to push
ahead with the probe, defending his officers by insisting that it is "not
desirable to bring children to such a dangerous protest scene."
"Are the police trying to punish everyone who took part in the protest?" asked
Grand National Party spokesman Rep. Cha Myeong-jin, voicing unusually harsh
criticism from his ruling party of the police.
Sim Sang-jeong, chairperson of the New Progressive Party, rallied in front of
police agency headquarters. "Before it's too late," she cried, "I urge you to
charge Commissioner Eo with abuse of these mothers!"
The three women accused are members of the Pram Mothers Unit
(cafe.daum.net/umom), an Internet community that formed to discuss their concerns
after Seoul signed a U.S. beef import deal with Washington in April. The beef
deal was to unconditionally lift bans imposed after cases of mad cow disease
occurred in U.S. cattle in 2003.
Mothers feared that contaminated byproducts from U.S. beef could find their way
into baby food, and that much of the cheaper U.S. beef would end up in school
cafeterias.
Massive protests led Seoul to hold a fresh round of negotiations with Washington,
leading to a virtual revision of the deal to add an age limit to guard against
health risks. Older cattle are widely believed to be more susceptible to the
incurable fatal brain disease.
While U.S. beef is now officially on store shelves here, frictions over the beef
agreement have not subsided. Scores of plainclothed police officers are on
round-the-clock patrols around Seoul's Jogye Temple, headquarters of South
Korea's largest Buddhist sect, where organizers of the beef protest have been
taking refuge since July to avoid arrest.
Such tensions sparked a gruesome assault recently just outside the temple
grounds, when a drunken local restaurant owner stabbed several supporters of the
protest organizers after holding in an argument over the safety of U.S. beef.
The victims were hospitalized with serious injuries.
Lim Mi-gyeong, 43, who marched with her 10-month-old son, believes police are
using excessive force to suppress the civic movement.
"They use the word abuse so casually," she said. "It's not us who abuse our
children, but police chief Eo Cheong-soo who abuses the people."
Still, there are some who question whether mothers should have brought their
children to the rallies, which at times turned violent.
"How could they bring young children to a place where police are firing water
cannons and waving shields," a blogger identified as "eoljjang" wrote on the
online portal Daum. "They used their children, who know nothing, to achieve their
political purposes."