China: 1000 Guangxi villagers riot over confiscation of unlicensed motorbikes

390 字
2009 年 12 月 12 日 00:02
BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific
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Text of report by Hong Kong Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy on 10 December

[Hong Kong Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy report: "1,000 Riot in Guangxi, 50 Injured, 5 Police Cars Destroyed"]

(10 Dec 2009) - This Centre has learned that a riot involving a thousand people occurred on 1 December in Heng County, Guangxi, because Public Security personnel beat villagers during the course of checking for and confiscating unlicensed motorbikes. Five riot-control police vehicles were smashed up and 20 Public Security personnel were injured, but 30 villagers were injured as well, 10 of them seriously. Two people being treated are in critical condition.

This Centre has learned that there are 200,000 motorbikes in Heng County, Guangxi. Motorbikes are the main means of transportation for villagers there. Some people who only use their motorbikes within their village have not applied to the government for license plates. On 1 December, Public Security officials were confiscating unlicensed motorbikes on Lingzhu Street in the town of Shitang in that county when a villager who was preventing the confiscation of his motorbike was beaten into a coma by 10 or so Public Security personnel using electric prods. There were as many as a thousand villagers on Lingzhu Street because it was a street market day. Villagers surrounded 50 Public Security personnel and pelted them with sticks and stones. Authorities quickly mobilized 10 or so riot control vehicles and nearly 200 Public Security personnel as reinforcements. As a rumour spread, saying that the comatose man had died, there was more and more rough and tumble with riot control police, but in the afternoon the Public Security force dispersed the crowd. During the incident, five police vehicles were smashed up and 50 people were injured, including 20 Public Security personnel. Two villagers being treated are in critical condition.

This Centre has also learned that a rumour in Shenzhen has it that five elementary school students were kidnapped [for ransom] between the end of November and early December. This Centre inquired of several news workers in Shenzhen, who said they had been tipped off about the story but were not able to confirm it yet.

Source: Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Hong Kong, in Chinese 10 Dec 09