Family members on the 10th anniversary of the Sewol shipwreck that claimed 304 lives: “Just want the truth”
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(Seoul, 16th) The Sewol ferry incident in South Korea on April 16, 2014 resulted in the tragic death of 304 people, including 250 students and 11 teachers from Danwon High School in Ansan City, Gyeonggi Province. Now that it has been 10 years since the Sewol sinking, the cause of the sinking has still not been identified. The family members said that they did not ask the public to understand their grief, but only hoped that the government would thoroughly investigate the truth and publish the records of the search and rescue work that year. Otherwise, “there will be only victims, but no perpetrators.”
According to Korean media reports, the Sewol hull that was salvaged in 2017 was stored at Mokpo New Port and is now covered with traces of rust.
According to Yonhap News Agency, a group of teachers and students from Danwon High School in Ansan City, Gyeonggi Province, took the Sewol on April 16, 2014 to go to Jeju Island for off-campus teaching. Unfortunately, they encountered a shipwreck. A total of 250 students and 11 teachers died. It became South Korea’s most serious shipwreck since 1970, and its aftermath also affected the impeachment of then-President Park Geun-hye in 2016.
Although the Korean people strongly demanded to find out the truth after the tragedy, even the most fundamental reasons why the ship ran aground on the rocks have not been found. Why were the passengers asked to stay in the cabin instead of on the upper deck? Why did the coast guard respond slowly and fail to rescue? All left many doubts.
The Memory Hall of the 4.16 Democratic Citizen Education Center in Danwon-won restored 10 classrooms and 1 office that they used, and named this memorial place “Memory Classroom”. The calendar and nutritious lunch menu from that year are left on the wall, as if they were there. Time stopped at the moment of the accident.
Jeon In-soon (transliteration), who has served as the interpretation guide of the “Memory Classroom” since April 2021, lost his son in the Sewol Ferry incident. When he saw people crying because of their empathy, he seemed to be comforted, but some visitors accidentally He occasionally said depressing words such as “I’m tired of talking about the Sewol Cruise” and “Why should I save and remember these things?”
Quan Renshun said that the families of the victims “are not asking the public to understand or share the grief of the family members, but they just hope to thoroughly investigate how the rescue work was carried out after the accident.”
Kim Young-oh, another family member of the victim, went on a hunger strike for 46 days in front of his daughter’s portrait in July 2014. He was one of the leaders who called for the enactment of a special law for the Sewol Cruise Ship.
He said that when he protested in Gwanghwamun Square 10 years ago, he didn’t know the depression in his heart. However, after leaving the square and facing daily life, he felt the entanglement in his heart. “Maybe it’s because the wound has not been healed yet, and the resentment It has not been eliminated yet.”
Kim Young-oh said that the Sewol Special Investigation Committee and the Hull Investigation Committee have not identified the person responsible. Now 10 years have passed, and most of the statutes of limitations for public prosecutions have expired, and some of the people who were prosecuted were eventually acquitted. ” It’s just deeply depressing.”
The same idea also appeared in an interview with Jeon Tae-ho (transliteration), a member of the family of the victim who was an ordinary citizen. He told Yonhap News Agency that it has been 10 years since the tragedy occurred, and the bereaved family members still have complicated emotions. Although they said they wanted to find out the truth, they did not find out the truth in the end. There is no clear result. “If we use the analogy of a hit-and-run accident, now there is a victim, but the perpetrator cannot be found. No one has been held responsible for this.”
Text/Photo: Internet
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