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 Six jailed for stopping anti-SARS work
 online.ie 18 May 2003

Six people in northern China have been jailed for inciting riots and using violence to stop anti-SARS work, state newspapers reported today, part of a government campaign to force compliance with disease-control restrictions.

A newspaper also reported that a quarantine order affecting more than 1,400 people in a Beijing hospital had been lifted.

The six demonstrators in Hebei province were given prison sentences ranging from one year to five years for disrupting social order and hampering SARS prevention work during an April 25 protest, the China Youth Daily said.

The group instigated a riot involving several hundred villagers in Guzhuangtou after one of the hotels in town was designated as a SARS observation station, the newspaper said.

One man beat drums and chanted slogans to incite the crowd while marching to the hotel, while two others clashed with a policeman and burned corn stalks in the hotel compound, the Beijing Morning Post said.

Three other people beat up hotel staff and damaged police vehicles, both newspapers said.

A woman from the county propaganda office said 10 people had been quarantined in the hotel at the time of the riot because they had come in contact with SARS patients.

The hotel is no longer an observation site because all 10 were released from quarantine when they did not develop any SARS symptoms, she said.

The World Health Organisation warned against non-essential travel to Hebei because of the spread of the SARS virus there.

The province surrounds Beijing, the world's hardest-hit area, and has reported more than 200 cases of infection and 10 deaths. Health experts said the large "floating" population of migrant workers in the province were a source of concern.

A growing number of violent protests have been reported in recent weeks as villagers afraid that severe acute respiratory illness will reach their homes have damaged or destroyed buildings designated as quarantine areas. Many have also banned outsiders from entering their villages.

SARS has killed at least 282 people on the mainland and infected more than 5,200. The government is struggling to protect its vast countryside, where officials say an outbreak could be a major disaster because there are too few hospitals and doctors.

Last week, China's Supreme Court said people who cause death or severe illness by knowingly spreading SARS could face execution. The court also said quarantine violators could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison.

Meanwhile, the People's Daily newspaper reported that a quarantine order on the People's Hospital of Peking University has been lifted after 22 days.

The Beijing hospital was shut down April 23 as part of the capital city's sweeping measures to control the spread of SARS.

A total of 1,429 patients, doctors, nurses and hospital staff were isolated, the People's Daily said.

The hospital will reopen soon after thorough disinfection, the newspaper said, but did not give a date.

As of Saturday, the city said 26,713 people were under quarantine from areas including one apartment building, two construction sites and 30 SARS-designated hospitals.


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