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Fish seller kills himself in protest over oil spill

A fish seller died yesterday after drinking poison and setting himself ablaze during a protest demanding compensation for South Korea's worst oil spill, officials said.

The suicide by Ji Chang-hwan follows the recent deaths of two fish farmers, who also drank poison in despair at the destruction of their livelihoods from last month's massive slick, which devastated the nation's west coast.

Ji, 56, died from injuries sustained on Friday when he drank a bottle of herbicide before running on to a stage and dousing himself with paint thinner, witnesses said. He then set himself on fire with a cigarette lighter at a rally in the coastal town of Taean in South Chungcheong Province.

"Mr Ji passed away at 8:07am," a spokesman for Taean Town Medical Center said by phone.

His body was transferred from the medical center to a morgue ahead of preparations for his funeral, said the spokesman, Lee Jung-Hoon.

Ji was among 5,000 people taking part in the rally calling for special laws aimed at compensating victims fully for damage caused by the spill.

The protestors, wearing headbands, waved banners, dead fish and tools used for digging out clams and chanting: "We're dying one after another. Enact special laws."

Taean, 110km southwest of Seoul, was severely hit when a barge, drifting in stormy weather after its towing cable snapped, smashed into the 147,000-ton Hong Kong-registered tanker Hebei Spirit on Dec. 7.

The ship was holed in three places, pouring 10,900 tonnes of oil into the ocean, destroying scores of nearby sea farms and polluting miles of beaches along the Yellow Sea coast.

Tens of thousands of police, troops and volunteers have undertaken a huge clean-up but environmentalists say the damage could last for years.

The recent deaths highlighted mounting anger and despair among residents in the affected areas as authorities are at a loss as how to divide emergency financial aid and donations raised after the incident.

"Residents here are seething with anger," Lee said, adding that another protest has been planned outside the National Assembly and the Samsung Group headquarters on Wednesday. The barge was owned by Samsung Heavy Industries.

Taean residents are calling on companies involved in the spill to pay full compensation and take "unlimited responsibility" for the damage, which runs into the millions of dollars.

Police plan next week to announce the results of an investigation into the accident.
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