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The government has come under attack from civic groups for its handling of recent strikes and demonstrations.

Various civic groups, including the nation's two umbrella labor groups, yesterday issued statements strongly criticizing the government's methods of ending a strike by unionists at Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul Thursday.

Over 3,000 riot police were mobilized to break up the 21-day walkout by 1,100 unionized workers at the upscale hotel, which some said resembled a war scene in the wake of a fierce clash.

The showdown left dozens injured and hospitalized.

The unionists have been on strike since June 9 over wages, retirement age, and the status of temporary employees among others.

Police drew fire from civic groups for using smoke bombs and resorting to force in the course of rounding up the unionists, which included pregnant women.

Civic groups argued that the assault on the hotel stood in stark contrast to the passive way police dealt with last week's six-day strike by doctors.

The walkout left most hospitals across the country short-staffed and was blamed for the deaths of several emergency patients who were unable to obtain timely treatment.

Thousands of riot police were also mobilized to quell a demonstration by Vietnam War veterans, some of whom raided the offices of a newspaper in Seoul that published reports of alleged massacres of Vietnamese civilians by South Korean marines during the war.

"The government is creating an atmosphere of mass suppression on the momentum of having forcefully broken up the strike at Lotte," said the Committee of People's Rally, an alliance of 30 civic groups that includes the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and a farmers' group, in a press conference held yesterday.

The alliance announced plans to hold protests in front of Lotte hotels and department stores across the country, as well as pay a protest visit to Chong Wa Dae next week.

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions accused the government of "displaying a weak image to the strong, and a strong image to the weak."

Other groups, including the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, said the government acted unfairly in using force against hotel workers fighting for better working conditions while neglecting the strike by doctors, who are viewed as providing an essential public service.

Opposition Grand National Party president Lee Hoi-chang sided with the civic groups yesterday, saying that he feared the riot police acted "indiscriminately" in suppressing the Lotte Hotel unionists.

Chong Wa Dae, meanwhile, dismissed accusations by civic groups that it mishandled the recent string of strikes.

"The government has said repeatedly in the past that it would allow legal demonstrations and strikes but not illegal ones," presidential spokesman Park Joon-young said yesterday.

Park explained that the use of force was inevitable in order to put an end to the prolonged strike at Lotte and head off the possibility that employees at other hotels might follow suit.

Park stressed that the government also took strong legal steps against those found to have acted illegally during the doctors' strike.