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Thousands Clash With Police In China Housing Dispute
Beijing (AFP) Jun 24, 2007 Thousands of protesters clashed with police in eastern China last week after security teams moved in to forcefully relocate families involved in a housing dispute, a rights group said Sunday. Residents refusing to move out of their homes threw gas bombs at the security forces, igniting riots Wednesday in Shengzhou city, Zhejiang province, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said. Up to 20,000 protesters and onlookers were at the scene of the riots that left at least five police cars smashed up, it said. About 20 people were injured in the clashes involving "hundreds" of police and security personnel, while six rioters were arrested as fire engines were called in to disperse the crowd, it said. Police in Shengzhou refused to comment on the unrest when contacted by AFP, but a local government official denied that clashes had broke out. "The police did not call in fire engines to disperse the crowd and tear gas was not used," the official at the Shengzhou city office told AFP. "The crowd dispersed on their own." A news report on the Southern Daily website said a 90-year old woman who refused to leave a four-storey building had hurled gas bombs from the top of the building as security personnel and wrecking teams came to destroy it. Photos on the Internet showed the building decked out with Chinese flags and protest banners that called for "just compensation" and cited China's property law which was passed by the national legislature in March this year. Up to 20 people were living in tents on the roof of the building, as they protested the imminent destruction of the structure to make way for a new road. The demolition did not go ahead as scheduled due to the unrest. According to online reports, a petition to save the building had been featured in the leading People's Daily in March as the state press trumpeted the new property law which details protections for private property. Forced demolitions of homes has become one of communist China's hottest social issues as residents accuse government officials of colluding with property developers to requisition land for lucrative real estate projects.
Source: Agence France-Presse Email This Article
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