A woman blows herself up in protest against demolition of her house and displacement to make way for a hydroelectric plant. It is the first case of a suicide attack over expropriation. Xinhua-in a contradicting report- says that suicide victim was as a man and that has nothing to do with the housing issue.

Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - A woman blew herself up in front of an office for a demolition in Baihetan (Qiaojia County, Yunnan). Local residents say that the woman made the extreme act out of desperation because her house had to be demolished to build a hydropower station. But Xinhua said suicide victim was a 26 year old man and that it had nothing to do with the project and demolitions.

On the evening of May 10, Xinhua reported that a woman had detonated a suicide bomb outside the office of the demolition of Baihetan, before signing the agreement for her displacement elsewhere. But yesterday morning the agency published another news item stating that the suicide bomber was a young man of 26 years, Zhao Dengyong and that "we are investigating whether his motives were related to the demolition."

The explosion caused three victims: one is the office manager; the other two are locals. There are also 16 wounded.

Local newspapers and residents report that suicide bomber was actually a woman from the village of Pingzi, one of the areas where allocated for the demolition of houses to make way for construction of a hydroelectric plant since 2004. All the villagers are angry because the government has offered a compensation of 60 - 80 000 yuan (about 6-7 thousand Euros) per mu (666 square meters), but everyone knows that the government will sell the land at a much higher price.

Yesterday was the last day to apply for compensation by signing the agreement for demolition, along with the promise to be relocated elsewhere.

It is the first case in China of a suicide attack linked to the problems of demolition and expropriation.

The requisition of land or houses and lack of adequate compensation are the main cause of the so-called "mass incidents". In 1994 there were 8,700 of these "accidents". In 2006 there were 127 thousand. In 2010 the figures were around 180 thousand cases.

 

• china
• yunann
• expropriation
• land
• compensation
• suicide
• attack
• human
• rights