South Korea - auto workers

Korean police helicopter assaults continue

Article published on the 2009-08-05 Latest update 2009-08-05 15:51 TU

Riot policemen throw rocks toward striking workers of Ssangyong Motor running away on top of factories
(Photo: Reuters)

Helicopter-borne police commandos fought a pitched battle with strikers at a car plant in South Korea again on Wednesday. The raid took place at the Ssangyong factory inPyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul. Police rapelled from helicopters onto the roof of the paint shop, where the remaining 500 workers are holed up and refusing to leave.

Security forces also used giant crane to transport three containers filled with troops. They used cranes to place them on the roof. Two other helicopters dropped liquid tear gas on strikers.

"Every day, helicopters are dropping chemicals on them," Hye Won Chang, a trade unionist who supports the strikers, told RFI. "They have chemical burns, they've been denied food and water are dehydrated. They don't have water to wash their wounds."

Firefighters at the scene said that three strikers were slighly injured on Wednesday as well as 46 police.

The hundreds of dismissed workers are occupying the factory's paint shop to protest massive layoffs. They have occupied the plant since 21 May.

"Safety should be the top priority," national police chief Kang Hee-Rak told Yonhap state news agency