Posted on 12/10/2005 5:07:57 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
CHINA has said it is investigating the deaths of villagers during an armed protest against a southern power plant, in its first official response to the unrest in which residents say dozens died.
Police opened fire after being blockaded by hundreds of demonstrators near Shanwei city in Guangdong province on Tuesday, state media said.
"It became dark when the chaotic mob began to throw explosives at the police. Police were forced to open fire in alarm," Xinhua news agency said, quoting a Shanwei government report.
"In the chaos, three villagers died, eight were injured with three of them fatally injured."
The report named three "instigators" and said they had organised an attack by more than 170 villagers armed with "knives, steel spears, sticks, dynamite powder, bottles filled with petroleum, and fishing detonators."
Police were forced to tear-gas the protesters and arrested two before being blockaded, when they opened fire in panic.
The report said government departments were investigating the cause of the deaths and a special work group was looking into the incident.
It said the "instigators" had been organising armed protests since June, using local anger over the new power plant as an "excuse".
Local residents have said the shootings happened during a clash between hundreds of members of the paramilitary People's Armed Police (PAP) and more than 1,000 villagers.
One villager has said on condition of anonymity that 30 people were killed and the New York Times quoted residents as saying that "as many as 20" died.
If dozens have indeed died, it could be the deadliest use of force by Chinese authorities since the Tiananmen massacre in 1989, albeit not the only incident on record.
Villagers told AFP the clash stemmed from a long dispute over compensation they wanted from the government for taking their land to build a 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.
It's shocking that they admit this happened. Maybe something is changing in Beijing?
Hmmmmmm, "fishing detonators" wonder if they have those at
Bass Pro?
I'll bet they are used by all the best one armed vietnamese
fishermen.
It actually made sense, if they had an credibility. Not. Now, if only they would allow independent news to go in and investigate. Not.
Nothing has changed.
They think they were totally justified and did nothing wrong and thats they killed the protestors.
They honestly think people will understand that this was (their point of view, not mine) necessary.
If anything has changed, they politicos are less media savvy then before and not as good as understanding how others will percieve this.
Honest to god, I think the Chinese really believe, the world will say they did what they had to do and were right.
Okay. When do we start putting more sanctions on them...
Sanctions? Personally, I would push for more independent news scrutiny. If the CCP has any media savvy, they would allow it. Otherwise, people will continue to laugh at everything they print.
i seen people fish like that in asia, it is awful. It kills every damn thing in the water. I'll take my pole any day thank you.
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.
Corrupt city governments that promote eminent domain to seize and give land to other private parties to develop (and not just for a government-run power plant) don't seem to think that this sort of unrest could happen outside of China, too.
I wonder if there are plans to pollute the lake so much that it becomes unsafe to eat its fish, hence the prohibition on fishing for profit.
The sad part is that most Chinese could care less about the truth as long as there's order in their country.
Hu Jintao's press secretary- "So we wasted a few of them. So what? There are over a billion of us. What's the big deal?"
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