South Koreans march to protest acquittals of American soldiers

SEOUL, South Korea -- At least 3,000 students and activists marched with candles and burned an American flag Saturday to protest the acquittals of two U.S. soldiers in a traffic accident that killed two Korean girls.

"Punish American GIs! Go away American GIs!" they chanted, occupying four lanes of an eight-lane boulevard a block away from the U.S. Embassy in central Seoul.

The demonstrators held lit candles in paper cups, illuminating the evening street.

Scuffles occurred when protesters insisted on marching on the embassy, which was blocked by thousands of riot police armed with helmets and plastic shields.

Several protesters were bleeding from their faces and several policemen were sprawled on the pavement or rushed to the hospital after being beaten and stomped on.

The protesters burned an effigy of President Bush and an American flag placed on a scaffold.

A brief scuffle erupted between the protesters and the riot police, but no serious injuries or arrests were reported.

In separate military trials this month, Sgt. Fernando Nino and Sgt. Mark Walker were acquitted of negligent homicide charges in the deaths of two 13-year-old girls. Their armored vehicle was on a training mission when it struck and killed the girls June 13. The soldiers are in the 2nd Infantry Division.

South Korean activists called the trials a sham. Newspaper editorials also criticized the acquittals.

Bush later apologized for the girls' deaths.

Smaller rallies and marches also took place on Saturday in at least five provincial cities, according to the national news agency Yonhap.

At the U.S. Navy base in Chinhae on the south coast, demonstrators wrote slogans in their own blood calling for U.S. troops to withdraw from South Korea.

Although most South Koreans tolerate or support the presence of U.S. forces on South Korean soil as a deterrent to North Korea, there is a widespread perception that the relationship favors the Americans.

The U.S. military has jurisdiction over its soldiers accused of crimes while on duty. There are 37,000 American soldiers based in South Korea.

South Korean political parties have called for the revision of a U.S.-South Korean military accord to grant South Korea more jurisdiction in cases involving U.S. soldiers.