| [April 13, 2006] |
LEAD: Clash over demolition in S. China leaves 1 dead: reports+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)HONG KONG, April 13_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING)One woman has died following a clash between thousands of villagers and police in a village of southern China's Guangdong Province, media reports said Thursday.
The Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao reported that the clash occurred Wednesday in Bomei village of Shantou city.
It began with a standoff between around 5,000 villagers and 3,000 riot police over plans to demolish a sluice gate that was built with the villagers' funds.
The report said villagers had at one point detained the city's deputy mayor when the city officials insisted on tearing down the sluice gate.
Police reportedly used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the crowd. Many people were injured, and a 34-year-old woman who was struck in the head by a tear-gas canister died on the way to hospital, U.S.-based Radio Free Asia reported.
The clash ended when government officials decided to suspend the demolition. The conflict began two months ago, when the local government claimed the sluice gate was illegally built without proper approval, the newspaper said.
A source told Kyodo News that the dispute began between two villages years ago.
"Villagers living along the river upstream set up the gate for their exclusive use of water, while villagers living downstream have faced water shortages for years," the source said without mentioning the names of the villages. "The government acted on good will to demolish the gate, so that villagers living downstream can have water sources, but the upstream villagers opposed it, claiming it would be bad luck for their village."
Hong Kong's Cable TV news reported that villagers from Bomei threw bricks at villagers from the neighboring Xi village who wanted to demolish the sluice gate for bringing bad luck.
The news report quoted a hospitalized female villager as saying police fired tear gas without warning.
"I was standing inside my stall with my sister watching. I thought we were safe. But gas was fired and a canister hit me right in the nose, then I fell down," she said, lying on a hospital bed with a nose patch.
Shantou officials declined to comment. A staff of the external communication office of Chaoyang district, one of seven districts under Shantou that oversees Bomei village, said she "knows nothing" and all her superiors had left for the day.
Social unrest has occurred frequently in the province in recent months, mostly involving land disputes.