The shootings happened on Tuesday during a clash between hundreds of members
of the paramilitary People's Armed Police (PAP) and more than 1,000 villagers
voicing their anger at the construction of a power plant.
The special police unit opened fire after villagers set up a blockade to
prevent them from entering and threw Molotov cocktails at them, according to
residents.
About 30 demonstrators were killed in the carnage, and several others were
unaccounted for, they said.
If the toll given by the villagers is correct, it could be the deadliest
use of force by Chinese authorities since the Tiananmen massacre in 1989.
Villagers grieving over the loss of their family members were pleading with
the authorities hoping to get the bodies of their loved ones back for proper
funerals, but in vain, according to eyewitnesses.
"I've seen relatives of the people who were killed kneeling in front of
the police asking them to return the bodies," said a villager surnamed Wei.
"But the police have refused to hand over the bodies. They've taken them
away, and we don't know were they are at the moment," she said.
China's state-controlled media had not released any report on the clash as
of Saturday.
However, an official with the Shanwei city government said an official
statement was being prepared.
Villagers told AFP the clash stemmed from a long dispute over compensation
they wanted from the government for taking their land to build the big
coal-fired power plant.
The project, sponsored by a company run by the provincial government, would
also prevent villagers from using a nearby lake to earn income from fishing.
The incident gives renewed negative publicity to the PAP, a force of about
one million men that is recruited partly from among demobilized soldiers.
Usually seen as a less lethal alternative to the regular armed forces when
putting down domestic unrest, it has had its resources expanded dramatically
in recent years.
According to observers, this reflects how desperate central authorities are
to avoid a repeat of the 1989 tragedy when soldiers trained for war were sent
to battle with unarmed demonstrators.
However, despite its specialist anti-riot training, the PAP has been
reported to opt for lethal means in tense situations.
In December 2000, members of the PAP reportedly gunned down several Chinese
Muslims amid heightened tension with non-Muslims in a rural community of
Shandong province in east China.
