Chinese police fight running battles with villagers in restive Wukan
Chinese police fired
rubber bullets at villagers and arrested 13 people on Tuesday in an overnight
crackdown to suppress demonstrations in a southern fishing village that became
internationally known five
years ago for protesting land seizures.
Police stormed into
the village of Wukan in the southern province of Guangdong and arrested leaders
of ongoing demonstrations in their homes. Videos posted on social media show
one person with blood on his arm and chest, and another being treated for an
apparent bullet wound on his hand.
Another video shows a
line of black police vans streaming into the village, a hamlet of about 13,000
people on the South China Sea
near Hong Kong.
Wukan carries symbolic importance due to
the success of 2011 protests that broke out over land seizures and corruption.
Villagers were able to expel government officials and police, and barricaded
the village. The siege was resolved only after the provincial secretary of
China’s ruling Communist Party agreed to allow a local election.
The winner of that election was Lin Zuluan,
a former protest leader. Lin was planning to lead a new round of protests this
year over more land grabs. Instead, authorities detained him and then charged
him with taking bribes. Lin’s supporters say
he was wrongfully charged and have staged more than 80 straight days of rallies
since he was detained. Those protests continued after his sentence was
announced on Thursday despite official state warnings to disperse.
An official statement
issued on Tuesday said 13 villagers in Wukan were arrested, allegedly for
inciting a mob and spreading rumours. The statement levies
several allegations at “a small number of lawless persons,” including
disturbing school, preventing fishermen from working and hampering shopkeepers.
It says officials tried to “educate and persuade” protest leaders, but that
guidance was evidently disregarded. “In order to safeguard
the interests of the masses and restore the normal order of production and
local people’s lives, local police decided to take action and apprehended
them,” the statement said…read more:
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