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China confirms it shot protesters
Chinese authorities have confirmed several protesters were shot dead in a confrontation with police at a village in the south earlier this week. Six people died as result of the shooting in Guangdong province on Tuesday, the Xinhua news agency says. Officials accused armed "instigators" of using anger about a local power station to incite the crowd. Protests against corruption, pollution and land seizures have become increasingly common in rural China. Officials quoted by Xinhua said more than 170 people took part in Tuesday's protest in the village of Dongzhou. At the urging of a few "instigators", the demonstrators reportedly attacked the police with petrol bombs, knives and dynamite. "It became dark when the chaotic mob began to throw explosives at the police," the report said. "Police were forced to open fire in alarm." Three people died instantly in the police firing and three others were fatally wounded, according to Xinhua. But local residents quoted in Hong Kong newspapers have alleged that up to twenty people were killed. Witnesses at the time told US broadcaster Radio Free Asia the incident happened after hundreds of police tried to disperse up to 1,000 demonstrators near Shanwei. Protesters were apparently angry because they had not been compensated for land taken by the government to build a power plant. One of the most prominent rural demonstrations, earlier this year, took place in the village of Taishi, also in Guangdong province. Villagers accused Taishi's chief of embezzling public funds in a deal involving the sale of a large tract of village land. The stand-off between locals and security forces lasted several weeks. Posted by: lotp 2005-12-10 |
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