Shanwei massacre:another "1989 Tiananmen Square Incident"?
请看博讯热点：汕尾开枪镇压事件
(Dec. 13, 2005)The folks were stunned when Chinese police opened fire and killed several protesters,which brought the memory of 1989 Tiananmen Incident,in which several thoudand people were killed or wounded by armed Chinese army.
The village in southern China was sealed off by police after violent clashes with residents protesting against lack of compensation for land lost to a wind power plant. (boxun.com)
On 6th December 2005,riot police opened fire on protesters in Dongzhou Village,Shanwei City of Guangdong Province and shot dead 2-20 villagers(the exact number of dead is still not clear,the number depends on what source you hear from).
"Now the authorities are coming to the village to detain people,"said one village,adding that his brother was among the dead.
"My parents and my sister-in-law are kneeling down in front of the house to ask the officials to explain killing,"he said,and put the number of dead at more than 10.
Another quotation from from one family with the surname Chen who witnessed the incident:"too cruel,one villager was shot in the leg,knelt down to beg for life,but they dragged him to the grass area,and shot two more bullet…"(direct translation from Chinese)
The Dongzhou dispute centers on compensation for land taken to build a wind power plant in the area,residents said compensation allocated by the government was appropriated by officials.
According to author's interviews with people in Fujian Province,the practice that funds or compensations from central government are "hijacked" by officials seems to be widespread.The typical example is like this:the central government allocates 100 million dollars to a village,the fund becomes 50 million when it's handed down to provincial government,then it remains 1 million when reaching city,when it finally arrives at the hands of villagers,it's only several thousand dollars.
Whatever the reason for this Shanwei massacre,it makes clear that increasingly the grassroots show no faith on the communist regime.Dictatorship,as the history taught us over and over again,only breeds suppression and corruption leading to unrest in long run.Democracy is the only and inevatible way for China (or any other countries) to go.
If you can read Mandarin,you may visit www.boxun.com to see more articles about this incident.
You may also add your signature to support one statement from one organiser in conjunction with International Human Right's Day on 10th December at(Mandarin):
Jackson Jo
Appendix:
the article related to this new massacre by John Patrick from the China Support network.
The Chinese government:
- Out to lunch
- Criminally insane
- Dangerous
In new massacre / latest atrocity, Beijing returns to shooting civilians
- Now shooting farmers
- Now shooting villagers
- Now shooting fishermen
By John Patrick
I had to make this one a signed editorial, because ordinary news copy does not accuse a government of being criminally insane or out to lunch. The article is prompted by a massacre in Dongzhou village of Shanwei city, a town in China's southeastern Guangdong province, up the coast from (northeast of) Hong Kong.
If I were an unknown writer, some might dismiss the article for the highly opinionated, not to say outlandish, charges in the headline—and, I might allow that it sounds screechy. I wish it could be so lightly dismissed, but the bad news (for residents of China) is that this is the present state of your government, accurately stated. In fact, your writer has been known to weigh his words; to analyze level-headedly; and, to render strong political analysis from the China Support Network as a regular contributor. True enough, the China Support Network and I have been known to stand with the Chinese dissidents—therefore, we do have an agenda, and an anti-communist starting point. That can inform one's reading, but it does not discredit the source—a credible newsmaker from the 1980s, pre-'Tiananmen' / pre-'China Support Network.'
Let's begin with the facts. The past week has seen another massacre in China — an occasion of armed forces of the state, opening fire with live ammunition, into a crowd of civilians, a la Tiananmen Square. This time, the crowd was simply villagers—farmers and fishers of Shanwei, seeking compensation for land that was taken away from them to build a new power plant. The conflict, or grievance for which they protested, has been brewing since May 2005, per the Epoch Times. Dongzhou has a population near 30,000 and during the action last week, protests swelled from '100 or 200 people' to a number near 10,000 (33% of the town) by one report. Riot police were first sent in on Monday, Dec. 5, to quell the unrest on the part of the first 100 - 200 protestors, per a Reuters report. Matters escalated on Tuesday when authorities detained three organizers, and this prompted thousands more villagers to respond to the scene. The peak number of 10,000 is per a Radio Free Asia report. Leaving work on Tuesday, one resident told Reuters that the air was thick with tear gas. Per reports, at ~5:00pm on that day, ~2,000 - 3,000 paramilitary police and riot police arrived, for a purpose that might have been to attack the village, or that might have been to quell the protest. (If we want to be generous and ascribe both motives, we can say that they quelled the protest by attacking the village.) Additional equipment used in the operation included machine guns, and one or more tanks. The main massacre occurred in front of the power plant, occupying the original land that was seized. Reports on the number who were killed varied, from a low of three (the government's story) through other reports of 20, 33, and 70 killed.
December 6, 2005 will be remembered as the Shanwei massacre, when dozens of farmers, fishers, and villagers were killed by heavily armed paramilitary police numbering in the thousands. For villagers of Dongzhou, what followed were days of terror, martial law, and a spree of arrests, further killings, and house-to-house searches conducted by the police. On December 8, a villager said in an interview— "As of now, the authorities do not simply arrest and then sentence people, but shoot them at will. A villager was shot dead in public yesterday afternoon." At about 5:00pm on that day, a female villager was heard crying in panic, "Here they come again! There are four armed police arresting residents!" The government sealed off the village and did not allow people to leave from the carnage. Nor would they allow villagers to claim the bodies of their deceased kin. A villager is reported to have told Sound of Hope Radio, "There is not even food or water. They simply don't consider we are human beings. They randomly shot around, like shooting animals. Even when someone was shot once, if they found that he was not dead, they would fire another round at him." Reports also speak of the government disposing of the bodies surreptitiously in the night, and dressing three corpses up in police uniforms, perhaps for the frame-up photo opportunity.
This incident echoed the tactics of Tiananmen Square, and the desperation of New Orleans (post-Hurricane Katrina). For the China Support Network, I denounce the entire episode, and offer sincere condolences to the bereaved victims, with my wish that any assistance required, for needs yet unmet will be delivered quickly. It is now one week after the beginning of this tragedy, and I do not know whether the survivors are out of danger, or still in danger. They have appealed to the outside world for help, and we should all do what we can to assist them.
This incident is also a turning point in political analysis, and rather profound as we digest matters. China's government under the CCP has a long history of picking and making new enemies. (Second generation leader) Deng Xiaoping mistakenly chose to suppress the college students in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. (Third generation leader) Jiang Zemin mistakenly chose to suppress the Falun Gong practitioners.
Until now, the democracy movement with Falun Gong had left some political space for (fourth generation leader) Hu Jintao, the current Chinese president. There is a Global Coalition to Bring Jiang to Justice, but not a similar counterpart for Hu. Logically there ought to be a Global Coalition to Bring Hu to Justice, but the freedom movement put the matter off. Perhaps it was thought that Tiananmen Square suppression was Deng Xiaoping's mistake, and Falun Gong suppression was Jiang Zemin's mistake. These matters did not begin under Hu Jintao, but it may be for Hu to correct the earlier-made mistakes.
Upon the success of the freedom movement, its internecine politics of today will become the future politics of China. The movement has issued something akin to its arrest warrant for Jiang Zemin but not, as yet, for Hu Jintao. Some leaders in this cause hope that Hu Jintao will do the right thing, as he must, and correct the mistakes of the past. To permit that to happen, the movement has kept open some political space for Hu.
Let's analyze what we have under hand. Deng Xiaoping picks, for the CCP's enemy, the best and the brightest—China's college students of 1989. Even while they are the best educated and should have the brightest futures, those students are a small handful in number compared to the population—a tiny elite. Jiang Zemin picks, for the CCP's enemy, the Falun Gong practitioners. If, as reported, Falun Gong reached 100 million people in China, that is a larger number than the college students, and represents 7.7% of China's population. And now, Hu Jintao picks, for the CCP's enemy, farmers, villagers, and fishers. The interior of China is said to have 900 million such people. That is close to 70% of China's population. Each of these mentioned Chinese leaders dares more than his predecessor!
For Hu Jintao to take on China's rural population as the enemy is foolhardy, and is to lose China. His reigning days are numbered, and it is only a matter of time until he loses control of China. After reading my presentation, would any of my readers still think of my headline as outlandish? A vigorous Chinese freedom movement is in fact working to usher the CCP, Hu's ruling party, out the door and onto the ash heap of history. They are marking the fact that they have peeled off more than six million members of the Communist Party in this year, 2005.
Your writer still chooses to weigh his words, and to analyze level-headedly. In politics, to make any prediction is to risk losing face, but now I am willing to predict two things. In 2007, we will live in a world that sees no future for Hu Jintao, nor for the World Trade Organization (WTO). They are both on their way out the door, with modern forces ushering them to the ash heap of history. At the time of this writing, we may wonder: in 2007, will I keep face? Or, will Hu Jintao keep face? —To learn that answer is only a matter of time.
John P. (John Patrick) Kusumi is Director emeritus of the China Support Network. The China Support Network consists of people (initially American students) who looked at the Tiananmen Square massacre and said, "This is wrong." It is a Western network of response to the atrocities of Communist China; to its assault upon its freedom and democracy movement; and to its crimes against humanity, and general affronts to human decency. It stands in support of Chinese dissidents — beacons of liberty in our time. They are today's martyrs and heroes, who are in essence wrestling with an alligator known as the Chinese Communist Party. Back them up with emergency assistance by joining the China Support Network, at www.chinasupport.net.
_(博讯自由发稿区发稿) (boxun.com)
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