6 killed as Chinese peasants attacked in land dispute

I saw this story on the tv news a while ago, and I thought I would post it because it was kind of interesting. Enjoy:

2005/6/17
By Philip P. Pan SHENGYOU, China, The Washington Post


Hundreds of men armed with shotguns, clubs and pipes on Saturday attacked a group of farmers who were resisting official demands to surrender land to a state-owned power plant, witnesses said. Six farmers were killed and as many as 100 others were seriously injured in one of China's deadliest incidents of rural unrest in years.
The farmers, who had pitched tents and dug foxholes and trenches on the disputed land to prevent the authorities from seizing it, said they suspected the assailants were hired by corrupt local officials. They said scores of villagers were beaten or stabbed and several were shot in the back while fleeing.

Reached by telephone, a spokesman for the provincial government said he could not confirm or discuss the incident. "So far, we've been ordered not to issue any information about it," he said.

Large contingents of police have been posted around Shengyou, about 100 miles southwest of Beijing, but bruised and bandaged residents smuggled a reporter into the village Monday and led him to a vast field littered with abandoned weapons, spent shell casings and bloody rags. They also provided footage of the melee made with a digital video camera.

Despite the attack, the farmers remained defiant and in control of the disputed land. They also occupied the local headquarters of the ruling Communist Party, where they placed the bodies of six of their slain compatriots. A crowd of emotional mourners filled the courtyard outside; hanging over the front gate was a white flag with a word scrawled in black ink: "Injustice."

Residents said party officials abandoned the building and fled town, apparently because they feared they would be blamed for the killings.

"We want to know who gave the orders, who sent them to attack us," said Niu Zhanzong, 50, a bald, wiry farmer who made a video of part of the battle before men knocked him down, smashed his camera and broke his arm. "We hope the central government will come and investigate. We believe in party central, but we don't believe in the local police."

The incident in Shengyou, a wheat- and peanut-farming village in central Hebei province, was unusual because the men sent to suppress the peasants appeared to be hired thugs rather than police, and because the conflict resulted in so many casualties.

Residents said the men arrived in six white buses before dawn, most of them wearing hard hats and combat fatigues, and they struck without warning, repeatedly shouting "Kill!" and "Attack!" Police failed to respond to calls for help until nearly six hours later, residents said, long after the assailants had departed.

Villagers said they began camping on the disputed land in the fall of 2003, after the plant announced that it would build a facility there for storing coal ash. Twelve villages surrendered land for the project, but peasants in Shengyou refused to give up their 67 acres. The plant agreed to pay them about US$1,800 per acre, but residents said the offer did not meet national guidelines. They also accused local officials of stealing some of the money and demanded a full accounting.

Instead, Dingzhou police began harassing the village, detaining its leaders and once going so far as to surround the town in what residents said was an attempt to cut off food and water shipments. The farmers responded by digging in to block construction and keeping a 24-hour watch on the land, even through the winter.

The standoff appears to have to caused serious problems for the power plant, which the provincial government describes as one of its most important projects. A party newspaper said last year that the land dispute could force parts of the plant to shut down.

Relatives identified the victims as Niu Zhanbao, 46, a pig farmer who suffered a fatal gunshot wound to his back; Hou Tongshun, 56, a father of three who was struck in the chest by a hook; Niu Shunlin, 26, a migrant worker who was both shot and stabbed; Niu Chengshe, 49, who suffered a fatal blow to the head; and Zhao Yingzhi, 50, who suffered multiple wounds.

Niu Tongyin, 62, one of the leaders of the farmers' movement, bled to death from a stab wound. His body lay in the Party Members' Activity Room, under portraits of Mao, Stalin, Lenin, Marx and Engels.

Researcher Vivian Zhang in Beijing contributed to this report