Text of report by Hong Kong Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy on 1 September

[Unattributed report: "Disputes Over Sewage Treatment Triggered an Exceptionally Large Disturbance Last Night in Quanzhou, Fujian - Police Opened Fire, and 10 People Were Injured"]

As this centre has learned, an exceptionally large disturbance occurred in Fengwei Town, Quangang District of Quanzhou City in Fujian Province, where 10,000 villagers, dissatisfied with the operation of a sewage treatment plant built in their locality, clashed with more than 2,000 riot policemen. In the clash, two police vehicles were smashed, the police fired into the air, and 10 villagers were injured, including three who suffered serious injuries and are now being treated at a hospital. When contacted by us, some local villagers and the hospital confirmed the occurrence of this exceptionally large disturbance.

According to information obtained by this centre, the authorities built a sewage treatment plant in Fengwei Town, which has caused many old people and children in the town to suffer from headache and vomiting. Also, the discharge from the plant has polluted the aquatics raised by the local people. Seeing that their health and means of living are threatened, some villagers have recently interrupted the sewage treatment plant's waste-discharging operations. Yesterday afternoon, one of the deputy heads of Fengwei Town argued with a woman villager over the plant's sewage treatment. The deputy town head beat the women and injured her. This enraged the villagers, who pushed and overturned the deputy town head's car and detained him. The authorities dispatched 2,000 riot policemen to the spot to seal up the nearby roads. The angry villagers, numbering some 10,000, closely surrounded the deputy town head to prevent the police from escorting him away. They also smashed two police vehicles. The police then made a second attempt to break into the crowd to take the deputy town head away. After this second attempt failed, the police fired into the air. As some villagers who joined the demonstration on the spot told us later, it was around 1730 that afternoon when the police fired into the air. Two shots were fired, but the injuries on those who were injured in the clash were not caused by gunshots. Ten villagers were injured in the clash. At this time, three badly injured villagers are being treated at the Southern Fujian Branch of the No1 Hospital affiliated to Fujian Medical University.

Recently, due to environmental pollution, cases of lead poisoning have occurred in Shaanxi, Hunan, and Yunnan, affecting hundreds of children in these provinces. In the past, reports on such cases were strictly banned by the central and local propaganda departments, and hospitals were instructed not to give collective blood lead tests to large numbers of children in one place. Because of this, the cases of lead poisoning in blood now revealed in the above three provinces are only a drop in the bucket. If nongovernmental environmental protection organizations with financial support from independent institutions overseas were allowed to conduct collective blood tests for children in China's heavily polluted areas, it is believed that hundreds of lead poisoning cases like those in Shaanxi would be revealed.

Source: Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Hong Kong, in Chinese 1 Sep 09