A woman prays for the safe return of missing passengers in the sunken ferry Sewol in South Korea. Photograph: Yonhap/EPA
South Korea's president has accused the captain of the ferry that
sank last week of “murdering” more than 300 passengers, most of whom
were teenagers on a school trip, as four more members of his crew were detained on Monday.
Prosecutors
said they would decide within 48 hours whether to request arrest
warrants for two first mates, one second mate and a chief engineer who
were aboard the Sewol when it listed and sank off South Korea’s
south-west coast last Wednesday.
The ship’s captain, Lee
Joon-seok, was arrested at the weekend along with two other officers.
Lee, 69, faces five charges, including negligence and violations of
maritime law, amid accusations that he abandoned the stricken vessel
while hundreds of passengers were still on board. South Korea ferry sinking was act of murder, says president - video
In an extraordinary broadside, the country's president, Park
Geun-hye, said Lee and some members of his crew had committed
“unforgivable, murderous acts” by refusing to order an evacuation until
the ship was listing so severely that most passengers were trapped.
"The
actions of the captain and some crew members were utterly
incomprehensible, unacceptable and tantamount to murder," South Korean
media quoted Park as telling senior aides.
"My heart and the hearts of all South Koreans have been broken and filled with shock and anger.
"Above
all, the conduct of the captain and some crew members is unfathomable
from the viewpoint of common sense. It was like an act of murder that
cannot and should not be tolerated.”
Park noted that the crew has
told passengers to stay put, "but they themselves became the first to
escape, deserting their passengers. This is utterly unimaginable,
legally and ethically.”
Lee was not on the bridge when, according
to tracking data, the ship began to list after making a sharp right
turn towards the end of its voyage from the western port of Incheon to
the resort island of Jeju.
The 6,825-ton vessel was being steered
by third mate Park Han-kyul, 25, who was navigating the notoriously
difficult stretch of water for the first time. She has also arrested,
along with helmsman Cho Joon-ki, 55.
By the time the evacuation
order came, about 30 minutes after the first distress signal was sent,
the ship had already tilted to one side and many passengers were having
difficulty moving.
On Sunday, a full transcript of communications
between the bridge and traffic officials on Jindo, a nearby island were
the rescue effort is being coordinated, revealed that crew members were
crippled by indecision over whether to immediate evacuate the
passengers.
Lee has said he had initially ordered people to stay put due to rough conditions and the absence of rescue boats in the area.
"At
the time, the current was very strong, the temperature of the ocean
water was cold," Lee told reporters as he left court at the weekend,
adding that he had feared passengers would drown even if they were
wearing life jackets.
Of the 476 passengers aboard, 339 were
pupils and their teachers from Danwon high school near Seoul, who were
heading to Jeju on a study trip.
The confirmed number of deaths
rose to 64 on Monday after divers retrieved more bodies from inside the
wreckage. The death toll is expected to rise sharply in the coming days.
Most of the 238 still missing are pupils from Danwon.
There were
more angry scenes at the gymnasium on Jindo where hundreds of relatives
have spent the past five days following the rescue operation.
On
Sunday, about 100 parents attempted to travel to Seoul to demand that
president Park take a more active role in the search for their children,
but were turned back by police.
As the rescue operation entered
its sixth day on Monday, some parents conceded that they no longer
expected their children to be pulled out of the ship alive.
“I
dream about him and hear hallucinatory sounds," Kim Chang-gu, whose son
is missing, told Reuters. "Somebody told me he was alive but I now have
given up. I know how he said 'Dad'. I keep hearing that."
In a
bitterly ironic twist to the saga, the Sewol’s captain appeared in a
2010 promotional video promising that the ferry route between Incheon
and Jeju was safe, provided passengers followed the crew’s instructions.
"Passengers
who take our ship … can enjoy a safe and pleasant trip, and I believe
it is safer than any other vehicle as long as they follow the
instructions of our crew members," Lee said, according to transcripts of
the message released by South Korean media.
In a 2004 interview
with the Jeju Today newspaper, Lee revealed he had been aboard a log
carrier that capsized off the coast of Okinawa in southern Japan, but it
was not clear if he had been on the bridge at the time.
Amid the
grief and recriminations, rescue workers continued to search the
wreckage in the faint hope of finding someone alive inside an air
pocket, although experts warned that the chances of someone surviving this long are practically nil.
But
vessels equipped with cranes will not be used to hoist the Sewol out of
the water until rescue workers are certain that there are no survivors,
and only with the parents’ permission.
Divers have retrieved 24
bodies since they broke their way into the vessel on Saturday night. "We
believe there are many people on the third and fourth decks where
cabins were located, so we will focus on these areas," a coastguard
spokesman told reporters.
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