JINDO, South Korea – The mood in the gymnasium on Jindo island where hundreds of relatives are waiting for word about their loved ones is generally a somber calm. People murmur to each other or sit silently, staring at screens showing pixellated footage of ships, rescue rafts and yellow bobbing buoys. Some relatives busy themselves with folding blankets or tidying the spaces they’ve been living in. Some walk around looking dazed or weep in a friend’s embrace.
They’re getting help for many needs. Volunteers set up charging stations for cellphones and distribute food and drinks. First-aid officers take care of those who have collapsed from exhaustion and grief. Police have set up a tent where some relatives have given DNA samples.
But the seeds of distrust were planted Wednesday, the day the ferry sank with 476 people aboard, 323 of them from a single high school in Ansan. Thirty-three bodies have been found, and 174 people survived the disaster.
The high school initially sent parents text messages saying all of the students had been rescued.
For many like Lee Byung-soo, whose son was aboard the ferry, it was only when arrived at the gymnasium that he realized 15-year-old Lee Seok-joon had not been saved.
The ferry’s captain – who was arrested along with two crew members – has drawn criticism for waiting about 30 minutes to order an evacuation, by which time the boat had listed so steeply many could not escape.
Saturday’s briefing began with a family member presenting video footage shot by a diver using a head-mounted camera the night before. Shin Won-sup, special rescue forces lieutenant of the coast guard’s south regional headquarters, had barely started explaining the operation when a man in a blue jacket interrupted him.
“Wait, what we want to know is the inside of the ferry. Why weren’t you able to film that?” the man asked.
“We weren’t able to go in,” Shin replied. When he repeated none of the divers had been able to get inside, the silence from the crowd exuded dissatisfaction.
The questions and accusations quickly mounted:
“You guys just filmed this video to show off to President Park (Geun-hye). To make excuses for yourself.”
“Why did you refuse to take the rescue gear and supplies that foreign countries offered?”
“We waited here all this time, trusting these people.”
“Now that 72 hours has passed, just pick up the dead bodies? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Would you have done the same if your own children were in the water?”
One woman climbed onto the stage and went behind one of the screens to demand that Shin and other officials come out to talk to the relatives. The rescuer and two maritime police officers slowly emerged, looking sheepish. Women shouted and yanked at the arms of one officer. A man jumped up and grabbed Shin by the neck but was pulled off by other relatives, but not before he swung at a policeman.
