In una cittadina cinese, la polizia in stallo per la morte di un cittadino
+ Daily Telegraph 111214, La città cinese ribelle di Wukan “ha cibo per 10 giorni”
– È in corso in Cina una delle più rilevanti proteste sociali viste quest’anno, in particolare nel Guandong, causate soprattutto dall’appropriazione di terre agricole da parte dei funzionari di governo locali. Il valore delle terre rubate sarebbe di circa £700mn. (€833,407mn)
– Sono in rivolta contro il governo locale gli abitanti di Wukan, a seguito della morte di un loro concittadino, Xue Jinbo, mentre era in carcere per aver protestato contro il furto di terreni, che poi i funzionari vendono a uno dei maggiori gruppi di speculazione edilizia, il Country Garden;
o Xue Jinbo avrebbe protestato anche per il finanziamento ed elezione dei funzionari locali. Era stato arrestato per danneggio di proprietà pubblica e interruzione di pubblico servizio, (facendo irruzione in uffici governativi e stazioni di polizia e distruggendo 6 auto della polizia, secondo l’agenzia governativa Xinhua).
– La gente protesta anche per il forte divario tra poveri e ricchi, 100 famiglie tra cui quella dell’ex segretario del partito e capo delle finanze cittadine. Quasi tutte le famiglie ricche hanno oggi abbandonato la città.
– La protesta degli abitanti era iniziata a settembre, con l’attacco agli uffici governativi.
o Wukan è una cittadina di 20 000 abitanti, agricoltori e pescatori, della provincia meridionale del Guandong, centro più importante dell’export cinese.
– Gli abitanti hanno nominato loro dirigenti provvisori, organizzato blocchi stradali e controllano le entrate per impedire alla polizia di arrestare altre persone o di ristabilire il controllo del governo sull’area.
o Hanno tappezzato di ritratti del concittadino ucciso i cancelli della stazione di polizia.
– Dopo che 1000 poliziotti armati non sono riusciti a prendere la città, la polizia l’ha messa sotto assedio, bloccando l’entrata in città di cibo e acqua; il cibo basterebbe per 10-12 giorni; attraverso un passaggio da essi controllato, riescono a portar via di nascosto carne e verdura da una città vicina; il problema maggiore è il riso.
o La polizia impedisce da 10 giorni che i pescherecci di Wukan escano in mare.
o La risposta iniziale delle autorità aveva oscillato tra l’invio di forze anti-sommossa e il tentativo di negoziazione con 13 rappresentanti dei cittadini, ma il negoziato non ha prodotto un compromesso.
o La scorsa settimana la polizia aveva anzi arrestato alcuni dei 13 rappresentanti, uno di questi, il 42/43enne Xue Jinbo, è morto per “arresto cardiaco”.
o Sembra che siano in corso negoziati tra il governo locale e i dirigenti dei cittadini, che hanno respinto la prima offerta: demolire le barricate, togliere gli striscioni e tornare alla vita normale, in cambio niente più arresti, rilascio dei prigionieri e della salma del morto.
I rappresentanti della popolazione chiedono che il governo ammetta la responsabilità per lo spargimento di sangue negli scontri di settembre, il diritto della popolazione a presentare denuncia, la legittimità negoziale dei rappresentanti della popolazione; la restituzione di tutte le terre, che verranno suddivise equamente tra la popolazione dai rappresentanti popolari.
Chinese Village, Police in Standoff Over Villager’s Death
– BEIJING—A fishing village of about 20,000 people in southern China is in open revolt against the local government after it announced the death in police custody of a villager who had led protests over an alleged land grab, according to local people.
– Local police have retreated from the village of Wukan in Guangdong province—China’s export powerhouse—and imposed a blockade, stopping food and water from entering in an attempt to crush the revolt, the locals said.
– Villagers, meanwhile, have set up their own roadblocks and are guarding entrances to prevent security forces from detaining any more residents or re-establishing government control over the area, according to the locals.
Villagers raised their hands as they gathered for a meeting in Wukan village of Lufeng, Guangdong province, Monday.
– The siege is one of the most serious examples of social unrest that analysts say has been escalating across China this year, and especially in Guangdong, due mainly to local government officials misappropriating land.
– Chinese authorities now face a tough choice between sending in more security forces to restore order—and risking serious violence—or negotiating a compromise with the villagers and possibly encouraging copycat protests across the country.
– The unrest in Wukan began in September, when villagers attacked local government offices to protest what they said was an attempt by local officials to take away their land and sell it to property developers.
– Local authorities responded at first by sending in riot police, but later tried to negotiate with villagers, asking them to appoint 13 representatives to deal with the government. Those negotiations failed to achieve a compromise, however, and last week men in plainclothes detained some of the 13 villagers’ representatives.
– On Tuesday, the local government announced that one of the detained representatives, 42-year-old Xue Jinbo, had died of a cardiac arrest in custody Sunday. Mr. Xue’s relatives believe he was beaten to death, according to villagers.
"We lament over his death, as he died for us," one villager, who asked to be identified only by his surname, Lin, said in a telephone interview with The Wall Street Journal.
– He said that Mr. Xue’s mother, wife and elder brother had been to see his corpse and had found three fractures, as well as several scars.
– China’s state-run Xinhua news agency published a report Wednesday quoting a local prosecutor denying that there were any signs of assault on Mr. Xue’s body.
– Xinhua said Mr. Xue was suspected of having led protests in Wukan in September "regarding issues related to land use, financing and the election of local officials."
– It said he and other villagers had broken into local government offices and police stations and destroyed six police cars.
– Mr. Xue and two others were arrested Friday on suspicion of damaging public property and disrupting public service, it said, quoting a local police official.
– He pleaded guilty to the accusations during two interrogations on Friday and Saturday, Xinhua quoted the police official as saying.
A fellow inmate reported that Mr. Xue was ill Sunday, it quoted the police as saying, and he was immediately taken to a nearby hospital, where he died after 30 minutes of emergency treatment.
The official added that Mr. Xue had a history of asthma and heart disease, according to Xinhua.
A report issued by the forensic medicine center at Zhongshan University in the nearby city of Guangzhou said no serious wounds were found on the body except for a few bruises on his wrists and knees, Xinhua said.
"We assume handcuffs left the marks on his wrists, and his knees were bruised slightly when he knelt," it quoted Luo Bin, deputy chief of the center, as saying.
The escalation of the protest was reported this week by the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Daily Telegraph 111214
Rebel Chinese village of Wukan ‘has food for ten days’
– The rebel Chinese village of Wukan, which has driven out the Communist party and is now under police siege, has enough food to hold out for ten more days, according to villagers.
– Wukan has been encircled by a police cordon since Sunday, after an attempt by 1,000 armed officers failed to capture the village. No food or water is allowed in, and no villagers are allowed out.
– But the villagers were unbowed on Wednesday and Wukan’s temporary leadership said it had seen signs that the Chinese government would blink first.
"We have an old saying here," said Chen Liangshu, one of the villagers, referring to the legendary aggression of the Wukanese and their neighbours. "In heaven there is the Thunder God, on earth there is Lufeng and Wukan."
– Trouble in Wukan has been brewing since September, after the village revolted at an attempt to take one of its last parcels of farmland and give it to a major Chinese property developer, Country Garden.
However it was the death of 43-year-old Xue Jinbo, one of the village’s 13 temporary representatives, in police custody that pushed Wukan into its current fury, and saw the last of the village’s dozen Communist party officials flee. His family believe he was murdered.
– A continual loop of mourning music was played over the village’s loudspeakers on Wednesday, and thousands of villagers have held daily protest meetings outside the village hall since Monday, shouting and weeping for justice.
– Meanwhile, Wukan’s three-floor government offices and its new customs house are deserted. At the town’s enormous police station, pictures of Mr Xue have been pasted onto the bolted gates.
– Almost all the village’s roadside restaurants are shut, but at the market around half the stalls are open. "We think we can last for ten to 12 days," said Zhang Xiaoping, one stall owner. "We are using a corridor to the next village to smuggle in meat and vegetables on the back of motorbikes, but each trip takes an hour," she added. "The main problem is rice, but we are taking each day as it comes."
– At the harbour, Wukan’s fleet of fishing boats has also been shut in. "There are some police patrols to stop us leaving the bay, these have gone on for ten days," said one fisherman, who asked to be named as "United Wukan". He added that he had already cut down to two meals a day and was prepared, like everyone else in the village "to starve myself to death".
– Wukan used to make a tidy sum from fishing, and was originally happy to sell off its farmland. But in recent years, a combination of pollution and large trawlers has diminished the fishery.
– The gap between the rich and poor in the village has also upset many, with at least a hundred families, including those of the former party secretary and village finance chief, living in palatial three and four storey mansions, all built on farmland. On Wednesday, almost all the rich families had also retreated out of the village, while the ones who remained refused to comment on the protests, shut in behind high walls and strong steel gates.
– So far, the police have not made any further attempts to retake Wukan, and the village’s temporary leadership said negotiations with the government are now under way.
– The local government sent a relative of Zhang Jiancheng, one of the four Wukan villagers being held under arrest by local police, to offer a deal, according to Yang Semao, a village representative.
– "He came this morning and said that if we tear down our barricades, remove our banners and return to normal life, the government would not make any more arrests, would release its prisoners and release Xue Jinbo’s body," said Mr Yang.
– "We turned down the offer. We want them to admit responsibility for the bloodshed when the riot police beat us in September, admit that we have a legal complaint, admit that the village representatives are a legal negotiating team, and to return all of our land to us, for us to split evenly among the villagers."
– Mr Yang said the village’s land was worth some £700 million, and that the village "would not budge" until it was given back. He added that while the government was publicly threatening Wukan, in private the mayor of the next door city had been bombarding him with conciliatory phone calls. He also said Beijing might send an investigation team to review the situation towards the end of the week.
– "I think in the next few days you could see some local government officials arrested for corruption," he said. "The government is softening its stance".
By BRIAN SPEGELE
– BEIJING—Police in southern China struggled to quell violent protests over alleged government land grabs that so far have left more than 10 police injured, in the latest sign of unrest in the country’s most important manufacturing region.
– The protests began Wednesday (21.09.’11) in the city of Lufeng in Guangdong province and continued through Thursday. Protesters said the local government seized villagers’ land for development without compensation and that appeals to government higher-ups have been ignored. On Friday, residents said the area was quiet, with armed police patrolling the streets.
– Residents on Wednesday and Thursday attacked local businesses, including a factory and a livestock farm, according to a government statement Thursday. It said about 200 people took part in the riots, but residents reached by phone said Friday that more than 1,000 people participated. They said several protesters were also being treated at local hospitals after being beaten.
Policemen used their shields as protesters threw stones in Wukan village in Lufeng in the southern Chinese Guangdong province on Sept. 22.
A publicity official for the city of Shanwei, which has jurisdictional responsibility over Lufeng, didn’t comment beyond the government’s written statement.
– "I’m just a farmer. I don’t know much about politics," said one disgruntled local woman, whose husband has gone to work in the provincial capital of Guangzhou, a booming metropolis of around 13 million people. "I just don’t want to be treated like this. They are taking my land and they are taking our lives."
– The protests represent at least the second violent outburst in Guangdong in three months and reflect growing concerns across China over corruption, land-right abuses and a growing wealth gap, among other problems. Hundreds of migrant workers in June torched government buildings and overturned police vehicles in the city of Zengcheng, after security personnel pushed to the ground a pregnant migrant worker who had been working as a street vendor there.
– Similar unrest has appeared in some other parts of the country. The central province of Hubei experienced violent protests in June after the death of a local bureaucrat who objected to a land deal backed by higher-ranking officials. In May, a man in an apparent house-demolition dispute with local government officials in Jiangxi set off explosions at three government buildings, killing himself and two others.
– Central authorities have tried to standardize land-acquisition regulations. New regulations that came into effect earlier this year stipulate that compensation for homeowners should at least equal market value, as well as moving and other costs.
– Beijing has said local governments must adopt new central regulations by Oct. 1. Guangdong is home to millions from China’s migrant work force, who flock to the region’s Pearl River Delta in search of work. It has become an incubator for protests among the country’s poor, many of whom are increasingly conscious of legal rights and bold in challenging abuses by local authorities, analysts say.
– Handling unrest across the region is an important test for Wang Yang, Guangdong’s provincial party chief, who is a strong candidate to become a member of the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee during a once-a-decade leadership transition next year.