China shot protesters against land seizure

Killer cops in 24-hour watch at village

Saturday, December 10, 2005. The Standard

A village in southern China where paramilitary troops fired on demonstrators, killing several, has been placed under 24-hour watch as authorities try to find protest organizers, villagers said Friday.

The shootings happened Tuesday during a clash between hundreds of officers in the People's Armed Police - a unit of the military - and more than 1,000 villagers protesting against the construction of a power plant in Dongzhou district of Shanwei city, Guangdong province.

The special police unit opened fire after villagers set up a blockade to prevent them from entering and threw small-scale explosives used in fishing, residents and an international human rights group have said.

Villagers said Friday there were still hundreds of troops guarding the village entrance and patrolling the streets.

"There are still a lot of People's Armed Police around. They brought in tanks, six of them," said a man surnamed Chen. "They are patrolling everywhere on the roads and the hill. There could be 1,000 to 2,000 of them."

Local authorities have posted notices on the streets, vowing to arrest and punish organizers, residents said.

"They are trying to find the villagers' representatives ... it's very tense. We are afraid to go out except to buy food," said a woman, also surnamed Chen.

Some 50 people are missing and are feared dead or arrested, villagers said, while other residents were in hiding.

There was still no official announcement of the incident on China's state- controlled media.

Some residents said four people had died under paramilitary gunfire but Amnesty International issued a report late Wednesday saying some sources said six people had been killed.

Other villagers said the death toll may be as high as 30. "There are probably 30 people who died. There were people who saw the bodies being loaded onto trucks," said the man Chen.

Hospitals where the bodies have been taken, as well as the police and local and provincial governments, refused to comment.

Villagers said the clash stemmed from a long dispute over compensation they wanted from the government for taking their land to build the big coal- fired power plant. The project, sponsored by a company run by the provincial government, would also prevent villagers from using a nearby lake to earn income from fishing.

Villagers said none of the police were injured as the explosives they used were weak.

With the news blackout, villagers said they feared no one would know what happened and lived in a state of fear. "Nowadays, troops kill ordinary people and blame everything on the people. Please help us ask Premier Wen Jiabao for justice for the people," Chen said. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

China confirms several rural protesters were shot dead in a confrontation with police earlier this week.

http://news.bbc.co.u...fic/4517706.stm

Bluecat, on Dec 10 2005, 11:10 AM, said:

This is the way, how it is done in China, should people protest....
Nobody really cares about.

I wonder, what the world would say, if France had done the same during the chaotic demonstrations a short while ago.....

the next superpower

yohan, on Dec 11 2005, 12:07 PM, said:

I think China still cares about what the 'world' thinks about them and hence these are news that are usually heavily censored (no mention of that so far in the Chinese newspapers).

But these days, difficult to keep anything secret for long.

The coal mines are a good example, I'm sure accidents have been happening for a long time but now it is reported and hence, China has no choice but to act about it, what they are starting to do.

Still a long way to go but progressing...

China detains commander of forces that killed protesting villagers

2005/12/12. DONGZHOU, China (AP)

Mourners burned paper money in the street Monday in a traditional ritual for the dead after the Chinese government detained the commander of forces that shot and killed people protesting land seizures in a southern village.

Police in black uniforms guarded this coastal village northeast of Hong Kong, stopping vehicles entering the community and checking the identities of visitors.

The government tried Sunday to defuse local anger by announcing the detention of a commander whose forces opened fire last Tuesday at villagers protesting the seizure of land for construction of a power plant. The government put the death toll at three, while villagers said as many as 20 people were killed.

Officials contacted by phone refused to identify the commander. But the Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao, which has close ties to the Beijing government, gave his surname as Wu and said he was deputy police chief of the nearby city of Shanwei.

On Monday, mourners burned paper money in the street in front of their home. Neighbors said they were the family of a man in his 20s who was killed in Tuesday's violence.

A woman, said to be the dead man's mother, lay on the ground looking exhausted. An elderly woman slumped between two people who supported her. Visitors wearing white cloth on their heads, a gesture of mourning, left condolence money in a box on the ground.

Another villager who refused to give his name said that his neighbor had been killed and officials had refused to return the body to the dead man's family unless they agreed to cremate him immediately. The family was offered 40,000 yuan (US$5,000; €4,200) in compensation if they accepted the terms, the man said.

The shootings Tuesday were the most violent clash yet in a series of confrontations in areas throughout China between police and villagers angry at seizures of land for power plants, shopping malls and other projects.

The government tried Sunday to mollify Dongzhou residents, announcing that medical specialists were being sent from the provincial capital Guangzhou to treat the wounded.

But authorities also have sought to enforce order with a show of force with hundreds of police in riot gear patrolling the town.

On Monday, police had set up a checkpoint about 10 kilometers (6 miles) outside the village where they stopped vehicles and asked passengers to step out to be frisked.

In the village, officials were hanging up red banners calling on the public to "Strike at lawbreakers and uphold social order." Loudspeakers also blared warnings into the streets, telling people: "Don't make trouble, don't spread gossip."

The detained commander's "wrong actions" were to blame for the deaths, said a statement issued Sunday by the government of Guangdong province, where Dongzhou is located. It did not say what his actions were.

Suspects in China are often detained for questioning and further investigation before police decide whether to arrest them formally and file charges.

The government earlier defended the shootings, saying police opened fire after protesters armed with knives, spears and dynamite attacked a power plant before turning on authorities.

Villagers earlier had hung up banners appealing to the Chinese government to intervene in the dispute, according to residents. They said those banners were torn down on Tuesday and burned by authorities.

Villagers said the dispute was simmering for more than a year.

The resentment boiled over on Dec. 6, when thousands of protesters gathered outside the power plant and at a main intersection of the village, witnesses said. Most people interviewed asked not to be identified, for fear of official retaliation.

By the government's count, China had more than 70,000 cases of rural unrest last year. The incidents have alarmed communist leaders, who are promising to spend more to raise living standards in the poor countryside, home to about 800 million people.

President Hu Jintao's government has made a priority of spreading prosperity to areas left behind by China's 25-year economic boom. But in many areas, families still live on the equivalent of a few hundred dollars a year.

A group of Chinese scholars posts an open letter condemning the shooting of protesters in Guangdong.

http://news.bbc.co.u...fic/4523504.stm

Well, and the ones they did not kill, they jailed them...

Chinese villagers jailed over protest

AP , BEIJING. Friday, May 26, 2006.

Villagers detained after a clash with authorities in which police opened fire on protesters and killed at least three people have been sentenced to prison, media reports said yesterday.

Twelve people from the village of Dongzhou in Guangdong Province were given sentences up to seven years for their role in the Dec. 6 protest over land seizures, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said. Nine others were acquitted, it said.

The villagers were tried this week and sentenced on Wednesday for illegal assembly, disturbing public order and illegally manufacturing explosives used against police, the newspaper said.

Radio Free Asia, a US-funded broadcaster, said three of the villagers accused of instigating the protest were given the longest sentences. Reports of police firing guns at crowds are rare in China.

A man who answered the telephone in Shanwei, the city that oversees Dongzhou, said he was "unclear" about the sentences. He would give only his surname, Xie. An official at the court where the trial was held refused to release any details.

Thousands of villagers in Dongzhou gathered in December to protest inadequate compensation for land seized by the local government to build a power plant. Authorities say police opened fire after they were attacked by demonstrators armed with knives, spears and explosives.

The government said three people were killed but residents put the toll as high as 20.

The clash is considered the deadliest in a series of increasingly frequent confrontations throughout China between police and villagers angry over land seizures for construction of factories, shopping malls and other projects.

One Dongzhou villager who did not want to give his name for fear of official retaliation said yesterday he had heard that six or seven villagers had been sentenced.

"I don't know what they've been charged for. The reason seems to be quite complicated," said the villager, reached by telephone.

"We are not allowed to say anything. It's not convenient for me to talk." he added.