S. Korea Ferry Disaster ‘Tantamount to Murder’

The South Korean president on Monday has described the ferry captain’s and crew behavior of the capsized ferry with 476 people on board as unacceptable and “tantamount to murder,” report said.

During a meeting with senior aides on Monday, President Park Geun-hye was quoted saying, “The actions of the captain and some crew members were utterly incomprehensible, unacceptable and tantamount to murder.”

“Not only my heart, but the hearts of all South Koreans have been broken and filled with shock and anger.”

Last Wednesday, ferry Sewol sank in 27m of water in calm seas as it sailed from Incheon in the northwest to the southern island of Jeju.

Ferry captain Lee Joon-seok was arrested on Saturday along with a helmsman and the ship’s ‘inexperienced’ third officer, who was in charge of the bridge when the ship first ran into trouble, report said. Al Jazeera’s Adrian Brown, reporting from the island of Jindo, said four more crew members were arrested on Monday.

Park said it was increasingly clear that Lee had unnecessarily delayed the evacuation of passengers from the Sewol as it started sinking, and then “deserted them” by escaping first, report said.

“This is utterly unimaginable, legally and ethically,” she said, adding that all parties to the disaster, from the owners, to the safety inspectors to the crew would be investigated and all those responsible would be held “criminally accountable”.

Park faces hecklers on Thursday when she met with relatives of the hundreds of passengers that are still missing – most of them schoolchildren. The families had criticized the official response to the disaster, saying the initial rescue effort was inadequate and mismanaged, report said.

Reports added that grieving relatives of the missing passengers staged a violent protest on Sunday against a South Korean minister, expressing their frustration over what they alleged was ‘tardy rescue’ operation.

Of 476 people on board, 64 have been confirmed killed and 238 people are still missing.

A transcript that was released on Sunday revealed that the ferry Sewol was crippled with confusion and indecision well after it began listing dangerously, Al Jazeera.net reported.

Source: Al Jazeera.net

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