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Protests against land seizures: 1 killed and 10 seriously injured
A group of villagers in the island of Guangzhou clashes with construction workers that seize their farmland for a real estate project. In Jiangxi, protesters block the train to stop the planned zoning changes.
Guangzhou (AsiaNews) – About 100 villagers clashed with construction workers on a small island in china as they protested the government’s seizure of their land. One protester died, while ten where seriously injured, reported Radio Free Asia.
A government newspaper, Yangcheng Evening News, confirmed the clashes but says the clashes were caused “by a traffic related problem”: the seizure of 100 hectares of land for the biosphere project that is being built, was not even mentioned.
Infact, the first confrontation between the villagers and the construction workers was last 20 march, after a truck injured one of the local residents. The construction company refused to pay for the medical bills of the injured man, who is still in the hospital.
Perplexed, the local united in front of the construction site to protest.To dispel them, the construction company sent armored construction workers with tubes and batons “and unidentified thugs” that began to hit the villagers. Chen Yongqi, 42 years old, was killed by a blow to the head by a metal bat.
Social protests are constantly on the rise in china, despite the repeated appeals of the communist leadership that asks local governments to build a “more harmonious society.” Liu Jinguo, vice minister for the social security had already confronted the topic in january, in the corse of a national conference on public order. In 2006, social confrontation reduced by 16.5%, with respects to the 87 thousand protests in 2005.
And yet, the protests have been more and more violent and organized, as demonstrated in the train line blocking at Guixi, in the Jianxi province, in which 200 demonstrators protested against planned zoning changes.
The protest lasted over four hours, and was concluded only after police intervened by using violence.