Protesters hurled rocks, bottles and eggs during a demonstration yesterday at a war memorial housing a statue of US General Douglas MacArthur, who landed behind North Korean lines a half-century ago and led UN forces in a counterattack that turned the tide of the Korean War.
A handful of anti-MacArthur demonstrators marching at Freedom Park were met by thousands of his supporters who pelted them with objects and shouted invective in the western city of Incheon -- the site of MacArthur's 1950 landing.
South Koreans still argue over whether MacArthur's memory should be revered or banished from the peninsula. Calls for the statue's removal have been made daily for the past two months.
Police were out in force to prevent violence, and no injuries were immediately reported.
"MacArthur is a general of blood and tears. He can't stand in this place which symbolizes peace and freedom," said Yoon Han-tak, 70, a retired schoolteacher.
But Song Chul-young, 61, a marine veteran, disagreed.
"Around the statue stands numerous invisible soldiers that fought with him. To take his statue down is to eliminate their souls," he said.
The argument for the removal of the statue, erected in 1957, came to the fore in 2002 when two schoolgirls died in an accident involving a US army vehicle. Their deaths spurred a tide of anti-American feeling and fueled resentment over the continuing US military presence in South Korea. Police have guarded MacArthur's statue around the clock ever since.
Most involved in the debate are elderly with personal memories of the Korean War and the bitter ideological struggles that the country went through in its early years.
"MacArthur is a war criminal who massacred numerous civilians at the time of the Korean War," anti-US groups said in a plea submitted to South Korea's National Human Rights Commission last month.
"To induce or force children to respect such a person by erecting a statue of him and teaching them that he is a great figure is a national disgrace and greatly injures the dignity of our people," they said in the plea.
Kim Soo-nam, 65, who heads another anti-US group, painfully recalled the behavior of US troops during the war.
"They sat in their jeeps and scattered biscuits on the ground. The poorly dressed young children would swarm like ants, and they took photos of that," he said.
But those who want to keep the statue -- mainly war veterans, some of whom fought alongside MacArthur in his landing operation -- are just as firm in their belief that the general's image should remain.
"Not even dogs forget their benefactors," said former South Korean Ambassador to the UN Park Keun, who spoke at a news conference on Friday staged by a veteran's group.
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency even noted the memorial controversy in a report this month.
Some observers are linking the MacArthur controversy to current relations between the South Korean government and the US. The Seoul-Washington alliance has undergone a transformation, with South Korea becoming increasingly assertive; President Roh Moo-hyun promised in his successful 2002 election campaign not to "kowtow to the Americans."
"There already are concerned voices about the abnormal condition of US-[South] Korea relations. Imagine the scene of MacArthur's statue being taken down broadcast live in homes in the US and worldwide," the Dong-A Ilbo daily wrote in an editorial last month. "History shouldn't be garnished or vandalized with ideology."
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
CONFIDENCE BOOSTER: ’After parkour ... you dare to do a lot of things that you think only young people can do,’ a 67-year-old parkour enthusiast said In a corner of suburban Singapore, Betty Boon vaults a guardrail, crawls underneath a slide, executes forward shoulder rolls and scales a steep slope, finishing the course to applause. “Good job,” the 69-year-old’s coach cheers. This is “geriatric parkour,” where about 20 retirees learned to tackle a series of relatively demanding exercises, building their agility and enjoying a sense of camaraderie. Boon, an upbeat grandmother, said learning parkour has aided her confidence and independence as she ages. “When you’re weak, you will be dependent on someone,” she said after sweating it out with her parkour classmates in suburban Toa Payoh,
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
‘TOXIC CLIMATE’: ‘I don’t really recognize Labour anymore... The idea that you can implement far-right ideas in order to stop the far right is nonsense,’ a protester said Tens of thousands of people on Saturday marched through central London to protest against the far right, weeks ahead of local elections and six months after Britain saw one of its largest far-right demonstrations. Organized by hundreds of civic groups, including trade unions, anti-racism campaigners and Muslim representative bodies, Saturday’s Together Alliance event was billed as the biggest in UK history to counter right-wing extremism. A separate pro-Palestinian march had also converged with the main rally. While organizers claimed 500,000 had turned out in total, the police gave a figure of about 50,000. Protesters carrying placards with slogans such as
RSS