South Korean police detain 53 farmers for violent protests
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-11-16 16:25

South Korean police said that 53 farmers had been detained for questioning after violent street protests against trade liberalisation left some 130 people injured.

Farmers hurled rocks and beat riot police with steel pipes and sticks near the National Assembly Tuesday after a rally opposing free trade policies ahead of this week's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

"We are sorting out those who will be charged and arrested," a police officer told AFP.

The three-hour battle left 130 farmers and police injured, he said. Protesters also burned three police buses.

They also burned a large painting showing US President George W. Bush thrusting a knife into a rice bag, and threatened to disrupt the APEC forum if lawmakers ratified a bill that would open South Korea's rice market wider.

Activists and farmers' groups have said that tens of thousands of protesters will rally in Busan on Friday when Bush and other regional leaders open their two-day summit.

The farmers' anger has been building since South Korea last year agreed to double rice imports to meet a World Trade Organization (WTO) accord that allows Seoul a grace period until 2014 before all import restrictions on rice are lifted.

The government has pledged to offer compensation to the embattled farming community, but farmers say they will step up protests if the assembly endorses the rice deal.

The WTO is running out of time to resolve talks on agriculture and other sensitive areas before a crucial ministerial gathering in Hong Kong in December.

APEC is urging the Hong Kong conference to set the seal on four years of WTO talks launched in the Qatari capital Doha that aim to deliver a comprehensive treaty on free trade by 2006.