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发帖数: 25262 | 1 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/world/asia/chinese-village-lo
Chinese Village Locked in Rebellion Against Authorities
By ANDREW JACOBS
BEIJING — A long-running dispute between farmers and local officials in
southern China exploded into open rebellion this week after villagers chased
away government leaders, set up roadblocks and began arming themselves with
homemade weapons, residents said.
The conflict in Wukan, a coastal settlement near the country’s booming
industrial heartland in Guangdong Province, escalated on Monday after
residents learned that one of the representatives they had selected to
negotiate with the local Communist Party had died in police custody. The
authorities say a heart attack killed the 42-year-old man, but relatives say
his body bore signs of torture.
Spasms of social unrest in China have become increasingly common, a
reflection of the widening income gap and deepening unhappiness with
official corruption and an unresponsive justice system.
But the clashes in Wukan, which first erupted in September, appear to be
unusual for their longevity — and for the brazenness of the participants.
Reached by phone on Wednesday, residents said throngs of people were staging
noisy rallies by day outside Wukan’s village hall, while young men with
walkie-talkies employed tree limbs to obstruct roads leading to the town.
Not far away, heavily armed riot police were maintaining their own
roadblocks. The siege has prevented deliveries from reaching the town of 20,
000, but residents said they had no problem receiving food from adjoining
villages.
Communist Party officials in Shanwei, the jurisdiction that includes Wukan,
declined to comment on Wednesday evening saying they would hold a news
conference on Thursday.
The unrest began in September, when thousands of people took to the streets
to protest the seizure of agricultural land they said was illegally taken by
government officials. The land was sold to developers, they said, but the
farmers ended up with little or no compensation. After two days of protests,
during which police vehicles were destroyed and government buildings
ransacked, riot police moved in with what residents described as excessive
brutality.
With order restored, local officials vowed to investigate the villager’s
land-grab claims. Two village party officials were fired and the authorities
made an offer that is rare in China’s top-down political system: county
party officials would negotiate with a group of village representatives
chosen by popular consensus.
A butcher named Xue Jinbo was among the 13 people chosen.
It is unclear what happened next, but villagers say the goodwill evaporated
earlier this month after a Lufeng County government spokesman condemned the
earlier protests as illegal and accused Wukan’s ad hoc leaders of abetting
“overseas forces that want to sow divisions between the government and
villagers.” A few days later, residents took to the streets again and
staged a sit-in. Last Friday, the authorities responded by sending in a
group of plain-clothes policemen who grabbed five of the representatives,
including Mr. Xue.
Two days later, he was dead.
According to a 24-year-old villager who described himself as Mr. Xue’s son-
in-law, his knees were bruised, his nostrils were caked with blood and his
thumbs appeared to be broken. The man, who spoke by phone and gave his
surname as Gao, declined to fully identify himself. “We’ve been to the
funeral home a couple of times but the police won’t release his body,” he
said.
Although government censors blocked news of the latest unrest, the state-run
Xinhua news agency weighed in on the “rumors” about Mr. Xue’s death,
saying he had died of cardiac arrest a day after confessing to his role in
the riots of in September.
The account, published Tuesday, cited public security officials who said Mr.
Xue had a history of asthma and heart disease and it referred to a report
by forensic investigators who found no evidence of abuse. “We assume the
handcuffs left the marks on his wrists, and his knees were bruised slightly
when he knelt,” Luo Bin, deputy chief of the Zhongshan University forensics
medical center told Xinhua.
The top party official in Shanwei, Zheng Yanxiong, said Mr. Xue’s death
would nonetheless be investigated, but he warned residents against using
their suspicions to fuel unrest.
“The government will strive to settle all related problems and hopes the
village will not be instigated into staging further riots,” Mr. Zheng said.
Shi Da contributed research. |
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