csua.org/u/e90 -> www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/international/asia/09cnd-china.html?hp&ex=1134190800&en=a42a6c1e282d9ade&ei=5094&partner=homepage
HOWARD W FRENCH Published: December 9, 2005 SHANGHAI, Dec. Villagers said that as many as 50 other residents remain unaccounted for since the shooting. I t is the largest known use of force by security forces against ordinary citizens since the killings around Tiananmen Square in 1989. That death toll remains unknown, but is estimated to be in the hundreds. The violence began after dark in the town of Dongzhou on Tuesday evening. Terrified residents said their hamlet has remained occupied by thousand s of security forces, who have blocked off all access roads and are repo rtedly arresting residents who attempt to leave the area in the wake of the heavily armed assault. "From about 7 pm the police started firing tear gas into the crowd, but this failed to scare people," said a resident who gave his name only as Li and claimed to have been at the scene, where a relative of his was k illed. "Later, we heard more than 10 explosions, and thought they were j ust detonators, so nobody was scared. At about 8 pm they started using guns, shooting bullets into the ground, but not really targeting anybod y "Finally, at about 10 pm they started killing people."
China, where the authorities have come to rely on rapid deployment o f huge numbers of security forces, tear gas, water cannons and other non -lethal measures. But Chinese authorities have become increasingly nervo us in recent months over the proliferation of demonstrations across the countryside, particularly in heavily industrialized eastern provinces li ke Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiansu. By the government's tally there were 74,000 riots or other significant public disturbances in 2004, a big jum p from previous years. The villagers in Dongzhou said their dispute with the authorities had beg un with a conflict over plans by a power company to build a coal-fired g enerator in their area, which they feared would cause heavy pollution. F armers said they had not been compensated for the use of the land for th e plant. Others said plans to reclaim land by filling in a local bay as part of the power plant project were unacceptable because people have ma de their livelihoods there as fishermen for generations. Already, villag ers complained, work crews have been blasting a nearby mountainside for rubble for the landfill. A small group of villagers was delegated to complain to the authorities a bout the plant in July, but they were arrested, infuriating other reside nts and encouraging others to join the protest movement. In response, hundreds of law enforcement agents were rushed to the scene. Everybody, young and old, "went out to watch," said one man who claimed his cousin had been killed by a police officer's bullet in the forehead. Early reports from the village said the police opened fire only after vil lagers began throwing homemade bombs and other missiles, but villagers r eached by telephone today denied this, saying that a few farmers had lau nched ordinary fireworks at the police as part of their protest. "Those were not bombs, they were fireworks, the kind that fly up into the sky," said one witness reached by telephone. "The organizers didn't have any money, so someone bought fireworks and placed them there. At the moment the trouble started many of the demonstrators were holding them, and of those who held fireworks, almost everyone was killed." Other witnesses estimated that 10 people were killed immediately in the f irst volley of automatic gunfire. "I live not far from the scene, and I was running as fast as I could," said one witness, who declined to give his name. "I dragged one of the people they killed, a man in his 30's wh o was shot in his chest. Initially I thought he might survive, because h e was still breathing, but he was panting heavily, and as soon as I pull ed him aside, he died."
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