Longtime S. Korean activist dies of injuries from protest
SEOUL, South Korea — An activist farmer who was expelled from school twice in the 1970s for protesting the rule of the military dictator Park Chung-hee of South Korea died Sunday as a result of injuries he sustained while opposing Park’s daughter, South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
The farmer — Baek Namgi, 68 — was struck by a police water cannon in November during the largest anti-government demonstration under Park Geun-hye. He had remained in a coma at Seoul National University Hospital since, becoming a symbol of what government critics call rising police brutality and the erosion of the freedom of assembly under Park.
After the hospital announced that Baek had died of kidney failure on Sunday afternoon, hundreds of students and other supporters gathered there. Thousands of police officers were deployed to the hospital over fears that his death might lead to anti-government protests.
In June, Maina Kiai, the special rapporteur at the United Nations on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, cited Baek’s case in criticizing what he called an excessive use of water cannons by the police and shrinking space for exercising the right to peaceful assembly under Park.
“In footage made available to the special rapporteur, the water cannon was used against largely peaceful crowds. In certain cases, lone individuals were targeted, a use difficult to justify,” he wrote. “The case of Mr. Baek Nam-gi is a tragic illustration of this.”
Baek was born in 1947 in Boseong in the rural southwest of South Korea. He was expelled from Chung-Ang University in Seoul in 1971 for leading a demonstration against Park Chung-hee’s deployment of troops on college campuses to intimidate student activists. He was later allowed to re-enroll but was soon on the run from the police for organizing protests against Park’s constitutional revision aimed at extending his dictatorship. While in hiding in a cathedral in Seoul, he became a Roman Catholic.
He was expelled again from school in 1975 but returned after Park’s 18-year rule came to an end with Park’s assassination by his intelligence chief in 1979.
Baek then led students in a march against Chun Doo-hwan, an Army major general who seized power in a coup after Park’s death. Chun’s martial-law troops arrested Baek during raids on school dormitories in 1980. He was expelled from school a third time and was later sentenced to two years in prison. He was freed in 1981.
Unlike former student activists who entered politics and became national figures, Baek devoted himself to advocating for the rights of impoverished rural farmers.
Few other South Koreans had heard of Baek again until the reports that a farmer had been knocked unconscious by a police water cannon in downtown Seoul in November. The water cannon continued to blast Baek as he lay on the ground and also blasted those who tried to drag him away. Doctors later reported that he had a cerebral hemorrhage that they suspected was caused by the water cannon. Prosecutors are still investigating.
The rally in November drew tens of thousands of South Koreans with various political grievances, including what they called Park Geun-hye’s authoritarian style. Baek and other farmers joined the rally to urge the government to help halt the falling price of rice.
Farmers had marched and held candlelight vigils to pray for Baek’s recovery, but their demand for a government apology was not met.
Instead, the police questioned 1,500 people who participated in the rally, while Park compared some of the demonstrators wearing masks to terrorists. The police also raided the offices of labor unions, which had helped organize the protest.
“His death increases the urgent need for the completion of a thorough, independent and impartial investigation into the excessive use of force on largely peaceful protesters, including Baek Nam-gi himself,” said Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International’s East Asia regional director. “To date, not a single officer involved in the case has faced consequences for their actions.”
The government had no immediate response to Baek’s death.
Since Park began her fiveyear term in early 2013, the political opposition and other critics have accused her of taking her country back to the days of her dictator father.
Baek is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters, one of whom he named Minjuhwa, or “Democratization.”
“My father was not one of those who wanted to be heroes,” Minjuhwa said in a recent Facebook posting. “He was just an activist who believed in what he did.”
Unlike former student activists who entered politics and became national figures, Baek devoted himself to advocating for the rights of impoverished rural farmers.