ROK parliament postpones vote on additional Iraq-bound troop dispatch bill
PLA Daily 2004-02-10
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- The South Korean National Assembly Monday night again postponed the vote on a bill on sending additional troops to Iraq as lawmakers remain sharply split over the dispatch, reported local TV news channel YTN.
South Korean Speaker of the National Assembly said the additional Iraq troop dispatch bill will not be voted on Monday for the parliament was concentrated on trying to ballot over the South Korea-Chile free trade agreement (FTA), said YTN.
Earlier today, National Defense Committee of the National Assembly passed the bill by a vote of 12 to 2 and referred it to the parliament plenary for approval.
Although major political parties all called on their legislators to vote for the bill in the main session to solidify US-South Korean alliance, many lawmakers still held anti-war attitude, opposing the troop dispatch bill.
The troop dispatch bill was approved amid large scale demonstrations outside the National Assembly Hall. Some 20,000 anti-war activists and farmers clashed with riot police outside the legislative compound in central Seoul, the TV report said.
About 100 police climbed on top of a few dozen buses parked alongside the street and stood there, holding large plastic shields in front of them to block stones and potatoes thrown by protestors into the compound.
Several hundred protestors, wielding wooden sticks, repeatedly fought police who retaliated with water cannons, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or arrests.
Seoul accepted Washington's request last October to send more troops to Iraq besides some 500 engineers and medics who are working there.
Last December, the South Korean government decided to dispatch some 3,000 troops combined with combatants and non-combatants to Kirkuk, some 250 kilometers north to Baghdad.
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