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Nick-la
Wonder Wit
Joined: July 19, 2003
Posts: 3675
Location: Wasted on this site
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 Posted:
June 17, 2005 - 04:43 PM |
 
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| Post subject: Chinese people slaughter each other for several kuai |
Fatal riot in rural China caught on video
Film spotlights farmers' fight to hold on to their land
Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Friday June 17, 2005
The Guardian
Video footage of a deadly clash between farmers and gangs employed by a Chinese electricity company to turf them off their land has been released, providing startling evidence of local conflicts normally kept hidden or denied.
The video, acquired by the Washington Post from a local farmer, shows a gang of young men armed with pipes and shovels as they charge a huddle of peasant prοtesters who have refused to abandon their land to developers.
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After a short one-sided battle, a single farmer is left on the ground, where he is beaten senseless by an assailant armed with a pole. Soon after the cameraman is attacked. There is an explosion, the sound of gunshots and screams of "Run!", then the images suddenly end. According to the Beijing News, six villagers and one attacker were killed in the incident and at least 48 people were injured, eight of them seriously. The fighting, which occurred last Saturday, was reportedly the latest and most violent of several assaults by up to 300 thugs who were hired by a local utilities company to force the peasants off their land.
Tensions had been simmering since 2003, when the villagers refused to accept an offer from Hebei Guohua Power, a state-owned company which wanted to build a storage facility on their land, about 140 miles south-west of Beijing.
Although local officials approved the sale of the property, the farmers refused to budge. Many have been living in tents on the land ever since, despite increasingly violent attempts to force them to move.
In April during one attack in the middle of the night, the villagers captured a hostage, Zhu Xiaorui.
The 23-year-old told the Washington Post he had been paid 100 yuan (£7), armed with a metal pole and told to "teach a lesson" to the farmers.
He was released earlier this week after contrite officials visited the village and offered 50,000 yuan compensation to the families of the bereaved.
The climbdown by the authorities appears to have been prompted by the coverage of the clashes in the domestic and international media.
According to Outlook, a Communist party-backed magazine about 58,000 prοtests took place across the country in 2003, a rise of 15% over the previous year.
With China in the midst of a spectacular and often unregulated spurt of development, many peasants are thrown off their property, usually with little compensation.
Wen Jiabao, the prime minister, appears anxious to avoid a repeat of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and has adopted a relatively relaxed stance to such prοtests.
Reprisals against the demonstrators have been few, and many punishments have been meted out to officials.
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I dont understand exactly the last bold point. He wants to maintain a relaxed stance? So he doesnt go and kill them himself? Oh. Good. That's 'improvement' I suppose.
But where is the central gov and/or police in making any effort whatsoever to prevent this from happening?
You can always, always, count on chinese people to do bad things to other chinese people. |
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I'm surrounded by idiots. |
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dfoo
Post Roaster
Joined: Jan 19, 2005
Posts: 4140
Status: Offline
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June 18, 2005 - 05:03 PM |
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There was an article about this in todays Shanghai Star. Here is the text:
Officials Removed
Both the party secretary and the mayor of Singzhou city in North China's Hebei province were removed from their posts after a bloody fight occurred in the city which caused the deaths of at least six people. At around 4am on June 11th, more than 200 young men in camouflage and helmets went to the village of Shengyou in the south of Dingzhou City. They attacked the unarmed villagers, most of whom were living in tents in open ground. Apart from the six deaths, 38 villagers were sent to hospital, eight of them in serious conditions. The reason behind the attack is still under investigation.
Regards, Matthew |
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