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Villagers Riot in China, 50 Police Said Hurt
 
swissinfo  
April 11, 2005 12:20 PM
 
Villagers Riot in China, 50 Police Said Hurt
 
By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) - Thousands of villagers rioted ineastern China, injuring dozens of police, after two of about200 elderly women protesting over factory pollution died duringefforts to disperse them, residents and officials said onMonday.

The rioting on Sunday in Huankantou village, Dongyang city,in the wealthy coastal province of Zhejiang coincided withviolent anti-Japanese protests in China's capital, Beijing, andthe southern cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen over the weekend.

It was the latest in a string of outbreaks of ruralviolence as the world's most populous nation facesdisgruntlement over a widening wealth gap and widespreadcorruption.

The ruling Communist Party is keen to curb dissent andpreserve social stability, but a spate of recent protests andtheir scale illustrate the extent of grievances in rural China.

More than 50 police were injured on Sunday and rushed tohospital, with five listed in critical condition, a doctor toldReuters. About four villagers were injured.

Police had tried to disperse about 200 elderly women whohad kept a 24-hour vigil for two weeks at sheds and at aroadblock outside an industrial park housing about 13 chemicalfactories, villagers and local officials said by telephone.

Two of the women were killed, two villagers said. "Theywere run over by police cars," one said.

A source with knowledge of the incident who requestedanonymity said the two had died during an attempt to arrestthem. He did not elaborate, but a statement from the citygovernment denied that anyone had been run over and killed.

Thousands of villagers clashed with police in riot gear,overturned about 10 police cars and hurled rocks at officersholed up in a local high school, residents and officials said.

"Villagers knocked down the wall of the school and chargedin," one villager surnamed Wang said.

Residents also smashed the windows of about 50 buses whichcarried some 3,000 police, paramilitary police and securityguards to the scene at about 3 a.m. on Sunday to try todisperse protesters, they said.

"Many policemen were injured ... Tens of thousands ofpeople surrounded the school," one government official toldReuters.

"Our leaders required us not to retaliate so we could onlyuse shields to protect ourselves."

"ULTERIOR MOTIVES"

In an official comment, the Dongyang city government saidthe sheds and roadblocks around the industrial zone hadseriously disturbed order and "endangered people's safety."

Officials from construction, transportation, landadministration and women's affairs departments had begun topull down "the illegal bamboo sheds" on Sunday morning.

"They were attacked by rocks, cudgels and choppers" bythousands of people and more than 30 were hurt and taken tohospital, five in serious condition, the Dongyang statementsaid.

Some people "with ulterior motives" spread the rumor thatone old woman had been run over and killed by the governmentteam, and that had sparked the violence, the faxed statementsaid.

Police were outnumbered and many fled after taking offtheir uniforms to try to blend into the crowd, the residentstold Reuters.

"We hate the people in command of the police. We arewaiting for the government to respond," a second villager said.

A third said: "We demand the provincial government send ateam to investigate this case."

Villagers told stories of withered trees and grass near thefactories, inedible vegetables and undrinkable water.

"Give me back my land. Save my children and grandchildren,"read a banner hanging outside the industrial park.

Eight villagers were taken into police custody after theroadblock was set up, residents said.

More than 3 million people staged about 58,000 protestsnationwide in 2003, according to the latest available officialfigures. The number of demonstrations jumped 15 percent fromthe previous year.

At least seven people were killed and 42 injured in thecentral province of Henan last November after a car accidentinvolving an ethnic Han Chinese and a member of the Hui Muslimminority sparked rioting.

The southwestern province of Sichuan grappled with anotherprotest that killed at least one person when tens of thousandsof farmers took to the streets in anger over a hydroelectricdam project that will flood 100,000 people out of their homes.

And last October, rioters in the southwestern region ofChongqing burned police cars and looted government buildingsafter a quarrel between residents escalated into a clash thatwas finally dispersed with teargas and rubber bullets.

Dissent is usually quickly quelled and leaders jailed, butanalysts said protests were becoming more common and word leaksout more regularly as technology makes it increasinglydifficult to block news.
 
 

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