Eyewitness of abuse beaten to death by public official
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – An innocent passer-by was beaten to death by officers from the urban administrative office in Tianmen, Hubei province, after he tried to record a dispute between the officers and residents with his mobile phone. But the nation is rising up against attempts to hide abuse of power by authorities and news of these episodes is becoming increasingly frequent in the media and on the internet chat rooms.
On January 7th Wei Wenhua, was driving in a rural area with a friend when he saw residents in a heated dispute with some urban administrative officers. The residents were angry because the local authorities were dumping rubbish near their homes despite repeated protests. The dispute eventually turned into a minor scuffle as the residents tried to stop trucks unloading rubbish. Dozens of administrative officers tried to drive them away. According to his friend, Wei stopped his car took out his mobile phone and recorded the officers beating up the residents.
Some of the officers saw Wei and immediately surrounded him and ordered him to delete the footage. More than two dozen of the officers attacked Wei after he refused to obey, his friend said. They continued to punch and kick him even after Wei surrendered his mobile phone to them and asked them to stop. He eventually fell unconscious and was taken to a hospital. Doctors declared him dead on arrival.
The news, reported by local press, soon hits the internet and is now known nationwide. Yesterday evening, Xinhua reported that a dozen of the aggressors have been arrested.
These officials are not police officers but are often employed to impose public order. Song Ruliang, a professor at the Guangdong Provincial Party School tells the South China Morning Post , the problem is that often “because many cities do not have enough police to fight crimes, some governments employ them as semi-official law enforcers. Many are badly trained and badly managed”.
Meanwhile, Zhu Wenna, director of Beijing monthly Faren on January 1st reported the story Zhao Junping from Xifeng (Liaoning), who accuses the county government and the local secretary of the Communist Party Zhang Zhiguo of having appropriated her petrol station in 2006 to build a commercial centre, without living her adequate compensation. Zhao even travelled to Beijing to present a petition to the central government, but police from Xifeng followed her and brought her home. Now she has been imprisoned accused of defamation and tax evasion.
Days after publishing the article police from Xifeng presented themselves in her office, along with an arrest warrant, accusing the journalist of slander and having published “false news” on Zhang. The woman is missing and her editor Wang Fengbin refuses to give here whereabouts.
The episode has been covered by National press. Even the People’s Daily, the official Communist Youth paper, is criticising the use of police by public officials who claim they have been slandered. Zhang, quoted by Beijing’s Xinjing Bao, claims he has not ordered any arrest and has no idea why Xifeng police travelled 800 kilometres to Beijing. In one day the news sparked over 30 thousand comments posted on the internet criticising the exploitation of “local judicial power” by public officials. “What’s the difference – says one post – between them and the feudal Emperors?”.
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04/01/2008
08/10/2020 16:10
