South Korean Catholic priests led a peaceful protest against U.S. beef imports late yesterday after the authorities cracked down on recent demonstrations that turned violent. About 200 priests with the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice held an ``emergency mass'' in the plaza in front of City Hall in the capital, Seoul.
It was attended by about 10,000 people, according to police estimates.
The clerics and protesters then held an hour-long parade, calling for the government to renegotiate its beef deal with the U.S.
Numbers grew to about 20,000 at the end of the march as people on the streets joined in, police said.
Clashes between police and demonstrators June 28 and 29 left more than 100 people injured on each side. President Lee Myung Bak has been trying to contain a backlash against his agreement in April to resume U.S. beef imports.
Protesters have staged daily demonstrations for the past two months to highlight the possibility of mad cow disease from imported U.S. beef.
Lee was forced to publicly apologize for his handling of the negotiations and fired all but one of his top aides.
`Stern Action'
The government promised ``stern action'' against violent protesters on June 29. South Korean police yesterday raided the offices of AntiMadCow, an umbrella group of South Korean consumer groups, food safety advocates and student activists.
Mad cow disease is a brain-wasting livestock illness that scientists say is spread in cattle by tainted animal feed. Eating contaminated meat from infected animals can cause a fatal human variant that has been blamed for the deaths of 151 people in the U.K., where it was first reported in the 1980s.
South Korea, once the third-largest importer of American beef, stopped accepting shipments in 2003 when the U.S. discovered its first mad cow case. Some beef was imported in 2006 and the ban was reinstated in October last year.
The priests yesterday called on protesters to continue peaceful rallies. They also began a fast over the resumption of U.S. beef imports and pledged to hold a mass at the City Hall Plaza every evening at 7 p.m. Seoul time, according to a statement distributed to the protesters.
The U.S. and South Korea agreed June 21 that South Korea will import beef only from animals younger than 30 months, which are thought to be at lower risk for mad cow disease.
The U.S. agreed to verify the age of its exports.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce