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Villagers Protest Land Deal In Yunnan, China

By Countercurrents.org

27 October, 2013
Countercurrents.org

Villagers violently fought police over a plot of farmland in a village in China’s southern Yunnan province. Since Tuesday, police have been stationed on the outskirts of the tiny farming village of Guangji.

Media reports from China said:

The farmland has been used by the villagers in Guangji and the surrounding area to grow crops for centuries. But, the local government plans to construct a $3.6bn tourist attraction on the land - a glitzy recreation of an ancient Chinese city.

For months, three villagers have been circulating around the region, advising Guangji's 2,200 residents of their legal rights to the land. When the police arrived on Tuesday to arrest two of the men - Wang Zhengrong, 69, and his son, Wang Chunyun - the vast majority of the villagers banded together to force the police to leave.

Wang Chunyun told "a dozen thugs" found him on Tuesday evening and quickly surrounded him. When he asked them, "Who are you?", the men told him they were the police. When Wang asked the men to show him their identification, they attacked him.

He was using herbs to treat his broken ribs, since he fears he will be arrested if he leaves the sanctity of the village.

Wang's father was also attacked and sustained multiple injuries, which caused him to lose consciousness twice. The older Wang is described as a "proud communist".

Police used tear gas and another unknown explosive leading four villagers to sustain severe injuries. Another 40 were also hurt. Photos taken after the incident show villagers with blackened legs and fractured skulls the villagers appear to have tried to stitch up themselves.

Villagers were using herbs to treat their wounds and broken bones. They do not dare to leave the village, even to visit a nearby medical clinic, for fear of being arrested.

According to state media reports, 27 police officers were also injured, leaving one officer in critical condition.

According to the Yunnan Daily, the province's main Communist Party newspaper, the Gu Dian Historic and Cultural Tourism Project will become one of the province's 10 landmark tourism sites.

Disputes over farm land - who owns it and who has the right to earn money from it - in China often result in clashes between angry villagers, who feel the land belongs to them, and government officials, who are eager to boost investment and tax revenues in their region.

Villages around the region are attempting to band together to stop officials from seizing any more of the land they will need to complete the project. In May, protests in the neighboring villages of San He and An Jiang also resulted in violence.

Villagers are on "high alert". Ten thousand acres of farmland have already disappeared. The villagers are determined to do anything they can to prevent more from slipping of land through their grasp.



 

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