Channel NewsAsia 23 Jan 08;
SEOUL: Thousands of people hit by South Korea's worst oil spill staged an angry protest in central Seoul Wednesday to demand swift compensation.
Some 3,000 marine farmers and other residents carried oil-coated oysters, fish, anchovies and seaweed, while a few protesters pelted the headquarters of Samsung, operators of the barge which caused the spill, with oil-covered fish.
Others used hammers to smash Samsung-made washing machines, TV sets and refrigerators which they had brought to the rally.
Protesters demanded that parliament and Samsung, South Korea's biggest conglomerate, swiftly compensate them for their threatened livelihoods.
Three people in the worst hit district have committed suicide following delays by local officials in making payments, including one protester who drank poison and set himself on fire last week.
"Samsung Group should promise unlimited accountability and unlimited compensation," the crowd chanted at the rally outside Seoul railway station.
A few blocks away, scores of police buses barricaded the group headquarters. Thousands of riot police were on standby in the area.
The accident happened on December 7 when the Samsung barge carrying a construction crane snapped its towing cables to two tugs in rough seas and rammed the anchored 147,000-ton supertanker Hebei Spirit off the west coast.
The Hong Kong-registered tanker was holed in three places and spilt 10,900 tonnes of crude.
Scores of marine farms and miles of beaches, notably in Taean county about 110 kilometres (69 miles) southwest of Seoul, were devastated.
The central government sent about 60 billion won (63 million US dollars) from state coffers and private donations to the region. But regional authorities have been at odds as how to divide the money.
"We are in total despair," said fisherman Park Mong-Kyo, 52. "We just don't know how many more months or years we must go on like this."
Prosecutors on Monday indicted five people -- the skippers of the barge and of the two tugs and the tanker's captain and chief officer -- on charges of negligence and violating anti-pollution laws.
Samsung Heavy Industries and Hebei Shipping, a Hong Kong corporation which owns the tanker, were indicted on charges of violating anti-pollution laws.
Owners and managers of the tanker protested against the decision to charge its crew. Robert Bishop, CEO of British ship management company V.Ships, expressed "dismay and disappointment" in a statement.
Bishop said the Hebei Spirit crew had carried out all instructions from South Korean maritime authorities before the accident and taken every possible measure to minimise the outflow of oil afterwards.
He said evidence showed the captain "acted in an exemplary manner and in the highest possible traditions of the merchant marine."
The Hebei Spirit officers are charged with failing to follow safety orders from navigation authorities.
The owners and insurers of the tanker, along with the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund, have set up a centre to handle damages claims.
Under an agreement with South Korea's maritime ministry, the insurer will pay up to 12 billion won towards the cost of cleaning up the shoreline. - AFP/ac
