Students riot in Olympic city

Press, 12 September 1988, Page 8

Students riot in Olympic city

NZPA-Reuter Seoul Hundreds of radical students yelling antiOlympic slogans battled riot police with firebombs and rocks yesterday as protests against the Games continued for a second day. About 2000 students from about a dozen colleges took part in a rally at Yonsei University, Seoul, to denounce the Olympics and President Roh Tae Woo’s Government. Protesters burned an effigy of the United States and shouted "Yankee go home.” “Oppose the Olympics that squeeze out the blood of the masses,” said a radical leader as protesters chanted slogans against the Games, which are scheduled to begin in Seoul on Saturday.

The radicals, a small but powerful minority on campuses, have virtually no public support. Most South Koreans are critical of radical protests against the Olympics and want nothing to disrupt the Games.

The police said they had no reports of arrests or injuries. Students also clashe with police at Yonsei on Saturday in an antiOlympic protest.

Students marched out of the school to confront hundreds of riot police surrounding the campus in the western part of the city.

Protesters, some armed with iron and wood clubs, taunted police and then attacked them with firebombs and rocks as other students yelled slogans. “Oppose the dictatorial Olympics,” and “Down

with the military dictatorship,” protesters chanted. Waves of masked students rushed out of the school’s gates and climbed over walls to pelt police with firebombs that exploded in orange balls of blazing gasoline, setting fire .to some troopers’ shields and clothing. But the police did not use tear gas because of Government orders not to use the powerful gas during the Olympics. Police also hurled back fewer rocks than normal, appar-' ently attempting to limit violence.

The police charged the protesters a few times, but remained on the defensive most of the time. The fighting lasted about 30 minutes and was confined to the road in front of the school.