Confusion and mistrust give way to anger
Print Edition
THE informal briefing by a South Korean coast guard rescuer started calmly enough. He stood in front of relatives of those missing from a sunken ferry, explaining how divers trying to find their loved ones are hampered by poor visibility and can venture only so deep.
Less than an hour later, yesterday’s meeting had unraveled. A few dozen relatives rose from the gymnasium floor and surged toward the stage, hurling rapid-fire questions — and a thick, rolled-up wad of paper — at the officials, who stood mostly silently, their heads bowed. One man tried to choke a coast guard lieutenant and punch a maritime policeman, but missed.
The exchange illustrated how relatives of about 270 people missing have grown increasingly exasperated and distrusting of South Korean authorities, in part because of confusion, early missteps and perceived foot-dragging. They have briefly been buoyed by new ideas about how to find survivors, changes in death counts and the number of missing — even rumors of contact with trapped relatives — only to be let down later.
The mood in the gymnasium on Jindo island where hundreds of relatives are waiting for word about their loved ones is generally a somber calm.
But the seeds of distrust were planted on Wednesday, the day the Sewol sank with 476 people aboard, 323 of them from Danwon High School in Ansan. Thirty-two bodies have been recovered, and 174 people survived.
The high school initially sent parents text messages saying all of the students had been rescued.
Lee Byung-soo, whose son was aboard the ferry, was relieved by the text. He called the maritime police to ask whether there were enough life jackets for all of the students, and whether the water was very cold.
“They said all the students were wearing life jackets,” said Lee, a truck driver.
It was only when he arrived at the gym that he realized his son, 15-year-old Lee Seok-joon, had not been saved. “I had to check every picture of the faces of the rescued students before I realized that my son was not there,” he said.
“The students were killed because the crew members and teachers and adults told them to crawl in the cabin and stay,” Lee said, weeping as he spoke.
Yesterday’s briefing began with a presentation of video footage shot by a diver using a head-mounted camera. Shin Won-sup, special rescue forces lieutenant of the coast guard’s south regional headquarters, had barely started explaining the operation when a man interrupted him.
“Wait, what we want to know is the inside of the ferry. Why weren’t you able to film that?” he asked.
“We weren’t able to go in,” said Shin.
“You guys just filmed this video to show off to President Park (Geun-hye),” said one relative.”
Family members approached the stage as the rescuer ducked behind an LED screen. They continued shouting.
“Would you have done the same if your own children were in the water?”
A man grabbed Shin by the neck but was pulled off by other relatives, but not before he swung at a policeman.
The venting ebbed as some relatives collapsed in tears. A diver would come later to talk more, but for the moment the officials backed away, out of sight.
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