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Chinese villagers win back land after clash
21 Jul 2005 05:06:40 GMT
Source: Reuters
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BEIJING, July 21 (Reuters) - Chinese farmers have won a battle over land rights after months of protests culminated in a violent clash that marked it as the bloodiest in a wave of rural riots, state media reported. Some 300 toughs with hunting rifles, clubs and sharpened pipes descended on Shengyou village in the northern Hebei province last month and clashed with the farmers who had been angered at the lack of compensation and staging a sit-in on land slated for the construction of a lime plant. "Having fully considered the fact that the village has a big population but limited land, the Hebei provincial government ... decided not to go on with the requisition," the official Xinhua news agency quoted unamed provincial and local officials as saying in an overnight report. But the victory over the construction project led by a state-owned power plant came at a price. Six villagers were killed and scores injured in the clash that highlighted growing disputes over land rights in China, where rapid development is encroaching on rural land and where the government places an overriding emphasis on the need for social stability. Unsatisfied with the compensation offer, the villagers had been dug in, living in a makeshift tent village on the site for months, though the dispute had been simmering since early 2004. The Xinhua report said the Shengyou clash was instigated by two contractors for the project and added police had arrested 31 and detained another 131 for their involvement. Those arrested included the Communist Party chief of the nearby city of Dingzhou, who was sacked after a Beijing newspaper broke the news of the riot -- a sign the government of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao is reinforcing its message of accountability. The plant will be built in a different location where it will use less farmland, Xinhua said.
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