Chinese villagers killed after land seizures

Chinese security forces sealed off a village on Dec. 11 where police shot dead up to 20 people in what is believed to be the most lethal use of force by authorities against their own people since the Tiananmen Square massacre. Days after reports of the shooting leaked out, Beijing finally confirmed that police had opened fire Dec. 6 on villagers protesting against their land being seized. A government statement said that three people had been shot dead as police quelled a demonstration. In an apparent attempt to diffuse tensions, authorities ordered the arrest of a police commander accused of authorizing the shooting. On Dec. 11 hundreds of police were patrolling and blocking roads within a five-mile radius of Dongzhou village, part of Shanwei city in Guangdong province near Hong Kong, as authorities sought to prevent the full horror of the incident reaching the world. Outsiders trying to enter the village were taken on buses back to the provincial capital three hours away. Officials had also started to monitor telephone contact, to prevent residents from appealing for outside help. The incident in Dongzhou came after months of protest against the building of a power station, which villagers say was on stolen land. They claim that up to 20 people died in the clash, which would make it the most violent action by authorities yet in the wave of protests against the authority of local officials sweeping every province. According to the government's own figures, last year there were 74,000 such protests involving more than three million people. Often these are tied to the pace of China's development, and particularly the grabbing of land by officials and local businesses for industries that pollute the environment. According to local residents, 300 people have been arrested in recent months for opposing the power plant, and the Dec. 6 demonstration was to demand the release of three more who had been detained. The government statement, released after a four-day news blackout, said the villagers attacked police with sticks, knives and Molotov cocktails. "Police were forced to open fire in alarm," it said. "In the chaos, three villagers died, eight were injured, three of them seriously." But villagers claimed that the protest was peaceful and, at most, only fireworks had been thrown into the air. One teenager said: "We didn't expect the police to open fire. They threw tear gas first and then they shot." According to newspapers in Hong Kong, residents say that police are going from house to house offering money to take away the bodies of those who died, in order to reduce the visible death count.