Police to watch road clash gang
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Police in Yunnan province are monitoring eight people for allegedly inciting 250 villagers to attack government workers and police on Tuesday over land-seizure compensation disputes in a community in Zhaotong city.
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Police to watch road clash gang |
Rong Lin, director of Zhaoyang district public security bureau in Zhaotong, said on Wednesday that two of the eight are organizers, whom the police have begun to investigate to establish their roles in the mass incident, which left 20 injured.
"We have enough evidence to conclude that it is the same gang that had provoked villagers to obstruct the road construction project over the past 35 days."
No one involved in the incident has been detained so far and social order in the city has been stabilized, Rong said.
A document from the district government said 30 villagers, surrounded by a crowd of 250 from the local Fenghuang community, used hoes, rakes and stones to attack government workers on Tuesday afternoon, until police intervened in the incident.
According to the document, 20 people were injured in the incident. Fifteen of them, including 10 government workers and five villagers, were hospitalized, though no one was left in critical condition.
"The villagers chased and beat us as we retreated. They threw stones and bricks at us, possibly injuring five of the villagers," said Ma Tao, head of the Fenghuang community's sub-district office.
Ma said all the government workers and officials had arrived empty-handed and none of them fought back.
Other villagers apparently then became excited by the clash, setting 14 cars on fire and damaging another 34, Ma said.
District leaders arrived later that afternoon and worked with the police to pacify the villagers, persuading them to return home.
Ma said on Wednesday that the road construction project "must resume".
The infrastructure project, which is expected to boost the city's local tourism industry, has involved the requisition of 86 hectares of land that is home to 5,858 people in the Fenghuang, Mulu and Xuezhuang communities.
Ma said the villagers have been unhappy with the compensation they have been offered of 1.05 million yuan ($157,100) per hectare of land, though it is slightly higher than standards set by the provincial land and resources department.
According to earlier media reports, the villagers said the resettlement plan is unfair and lacked transparency.
Villagers have obstructed the project several times since Sept 27, when 40 people from the Mulu community engaged in a brawl with project suppliers and then placed a coffin on the construction site in protest.
Ma Jilin, Party chief of Zhaoyang district, said villagers' intrusion in the project had resulted in a direct economic loss of 1.7 million yuan.
