Police raid teachers' union over anti-gov't campaign

(ATTN: UPDATES with police comments, union reaction in paras 5-8)
SEOUL, July 3 (Yonhap) -- Police on Friday raided the office of a progressive
teachers' union that defied a government ban last month by releasing a statement
highly critical of policies enacted by the incumbent administration.
Tension has been escalating between the left-leaning Korean Teachers and
Education Workers' Union and the government over the union's statement issued on
June 18, which berated President Lee Myung-bak's competition-driven education
policies and called his governing style "authoritarian." The statement was signed
by about 17,000 teachers nationwide.
While teachers claim the campaign is legal, the government insists it violated a
law that prohibits teachers at state-run schools from engaging in political
activities and is vowing to punish some 88 active participants.
Searching union headquarters and two other Seoul offices for two hours beginning
at 5 a.m., police seized five network servers, directories of union members as
well as documents related to the June statement.
Police plan to summon leaders of the union shortly after analyzing the seized
documents which will take up to three days, an official at Seoul's Yeongdeungpo
Police Station said.
Accusing the police of abusing their authority, unionized teachers vowed to go
ahead with a plan later this month to release a second statement demanding that
the government guarantee freedom of expression. They say the campaign, which will
involve issuing a signed statement, does not constitute political activity.
"This is the first time in the union's 20-year history it has its headquarters
searched," union members said in a press conference. "This is a
politically-driven action to suppress a democratic movement. We will not be
influenced by it."
Progressive civic groups and opposition parties supporting the teachers' movement
held demonstrations Friday, demanding the police halt their "suppressive probe."
The teachers' movement is part of an ongoing anti-government campaign by
academics and civic and religious groups here that was largely triggered by the
May 23 suicide of Roh Moo-hyun, President Lee's immediate predecessor.
Roh, a liberal human rights lawyer-turned-politician, leaped to his death from a
mountainside precipice above his rural southeastern home amid a corruption
investigation that sent several of his closest confidants to prison. His
supporters say the probe was politically motivated.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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