Chinese legislator missing after beating: journalists(AFP)
(Oct. 11, 2005)
BEIJING (AFP) - A Chinese legislator is missing after he and a foreign journalist were attacked by thugs at a village in southern China at the center of a bitter land dispute, reporters say.
(boxun.com)
Lu Danglie, a delegate to the local People's Congress from Hubei province's Zhijiang city, was badly beaten Saturday as he tried to enter Taishi village in southern Guangdong province, journalist Jonathan Watts, told AFP.
"We are extremely concerned about Lu Danglie, we do not know where he is, he was extremely badly beaten, possible killed," said Watts, the Beijing based correspondent for the British newspaper The Guardian.
Guardian reporter Benjamin Josse-Walt, who was with Lu, was threatened by guards and thugs in Taishi before being taken to a neighboring township and warned not to meddle in the dispute.
Lu was unconscious but still being kicked by his attackers when the journalist was taken away, Watts said.
"Lu and the Guardian correspondent went to the area to try to cover the story that has been widely covered when they met up with this gang of thugs," he said.
Lu is among a growing number of rights activists and lawyers who have sought to educate farmers at Taishi village in their ongoing battle to legally remove village head Chen Jinsheng, whom locals accuse of corrupt land practices.
Chen is accused of selling villagers' land without their consent and pocketing some of the money.
The attack came after two foreign journalists were punched and slapped on Friday as they tried to enter Taishi village.
Malaysian journalist Leu Siew Ying from the South China Morning Post and French reporter Abel Segretin from Radio France Internationale were pushed and shoved by a group of 20 people as they tried to report on the dispute.
Watts and Leu said that the thugs were not from Taishi village but most likely hired by local government officials.
The incidents follow the arrest of rights lawyer Guo Feixiong, who was helping villagers in the dispute.
Guo went missing last month after he also tried to educate Taishi farmers about their land rights.
Academics and lawyers around China view the case as a test of the central government's determination to fully implement laws on village democracy, something they had been promoting.
Villagers told AFP that numerous plainclothes and uniformed police have been posted in the village to monitor the activities of villagers around the clock.
They were warning locals "not to cause trouble" by talking to reporters.
(boxun.com)
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