Press Interpreter

12/10/05 -- Based on information from both inside and outside the country, we have reason to believe with certainty that on December 6, 2005 the government in Shanwei, Guangdong Province, dispatched armed police to suppress the rights of villagers in Dongzhou who were legally protesting. The police proceeded to open fire on the villagers, resulting in death and injury of many present. This is the first large-scale occurrence since the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre of the Chinese government authorizing the use of arms against civilians. There are many photographs circulating on the internet showing the relatives of those who died in front of armed police, kneeling and burning incense—pleading to be allowed to claim the dead bodies. Below is an excerpt from an article published on December 7th by the Lutou News Agency.

Villagers from the town of Dongzhou (located in Shanwei, Guangdong) while protesting insufficient compensation for their land which was to be used for the construction of a wind power plant had a violent confrontation with the police. Later, the police sealed off the town. According to residents, police officers from the town opened fire on the villagers while trying to reign in the chaos of the demonstrations. According to residents who where present and the estimation of human rights organizations, between two and twenty people were killed. One villager said, “The authorities had already started arresting people.� He also said that his own brother had been killed during the protest. During a telephone conversation he said, “My parents and sister-in-law stood in front of the house and demanded an explanation from the government officials.� This villager said that at least ten people were killed and their bodies were placed inside the house.

The British Broadcasting Corporation on December 10th stated, “The Dongzhou Incident, where armed police fired against civilians, has resulted in the deaths of twenty or more individuals. The officials responsible have been trying to cover up their transgression by offering the villagers cash [in exchange for altering their stories].� According to reports, the [Dongzhou] incident has been widely reported in the foreign press. If the reports are true, the incident has resulted in the greatest loss of civilian life to occur during a demonstration since the Tiananmen Square incident.

We express our most fervent protest and censure of the authorities in Guangdong and those in the national government responsible for creating this bloody tragedy! We express our most fervent protest that even now, the authorities in the Chinese government have not offered any explanation, clarification or investigation of what transpired. We protest the crudeness of the government in categorically censoring all media reports of the Dongzhou incident.

According to reports, in 2002, the Honghaiwan Economic Development Zone (located in Shanwei Guangdong) began building a large-scale electric plant. They forced villagers to leave large plots of mountainous land and cultivated land. Approximately, 40,000 villagers from Dongzhou were displaced without receiving the reasonable compensation and resettlement guaranteed by the law and written in the constitution. Starting in 2004, the villagers started down the path of legally asserting their rights. After using various methods to complain to the local and regional government, they never received an official reply or decision.

Even worse was the fact that the local government used various tactics to impede the work of the villagers and to detain village representatives. In addition to this, they sealed off news of the villagers concerns by forbidding media reporting. Lawyers who were willing to offer legal assistance to the villagers received warnings from the judiciary and therefore could not be entrusted [with the task of representing the villagers.] The villagers were unable to successfully lodge their complaints, so they began taking turns standing peacefully in front of the power plant. They did this to urge the government to quickly and fairly resolve the villagers’ legal demand for compensation and resettlement.

We believe that the misuse of power by the local government is what incited this violent conflict. We believe that the Chinese government, by ignoring the basic human rights of its civilians, precipitated this astonishing and senseless massacre.

We believe that sending out fully armed police officers to massacre civilians undermines China’s stated intention of creating a harmonious society that respects human rights. This event threatens to collapse the legality of the Chinese government’s authority to rule the country. This event, that tramples universal standards of human dignity, also tramples on the constitution and every international human right treaty that China is a signatory to. Regardless of whether the order to suppress the protests came from the local authorities in Guangdong or from the central government, the resulting massacre clearly constitutes a crime against humanity. This kind of government misdeed, should not only by judged domestically, it should also be referred to the international human rights court.

We have observed before this [the Dongzhou Incident] that in the last several years there have been a string of violent conflicts between locals and the authorities relating to the issue of land compensation. Examples of these have been the July 31, 2004 bloody incident in the village of Shijiahe located in Zhengzhou, Henan; the October, 4, 2004 bloody incident the village of Chawan located in Yulin, Shaanxi; the November, 2004 incident in Hanyuan, Sichuan; and the clash from July to October of 2005 with authorities in the village of Taishi located in the Fanyu region of Guangdong.

We believe that this crime—of the brutal slaughter by the Shanwei government of civilians who were lawfully protesting—must be severely punished and that the government must pay an equivalent political price. The Chinese government must muster up its courage and will to begin the painful process of tracking down those responsible and requiring them to pay the necessary political price for their crimes. Otherwise, this bloody incident will set a deplorable example for other local governments to follow, and cause further violent conflicts between civilians and government officials. Moreover, this event will bury in the heart of the Chinese people a deep-seated terror, hatred and enmity [towards the government], and become an impenetrable obstacle to the creation of a peaceful society. In the end, this event will create widespread opposition in society and become an avalanche of a political crisis. This scenario is something that we are firmly resolved to never witness or accept. Likewise, we believe that all the Chinese people including high and low officers in the government are not willing to witness or accept such a scenario.

We believe that fundamental to a harmonious society is a guarantee of and respect for human rights and that such a society must be responsible to the will of the people. At present, China’s political crisis is becoming increasingly dangerous. This political crisis stems from one-party rule and from the Party’s restriction of free speech. This creates an imbalance and a polarization between the rights of the ruling class and the rights of those ruled. This has caused a widening chasm to form between an aristocratic class and the disempowered masses. Conflicts between these two classes will increase in both frequency and severity. Moreover, the government in handling these clashes has only left itself one option—violence.

We believe that the reason there are conflicts between the masses and the government is because of twenty years of sluggish political reform. The philosophy of the Chinese government in governing the country and in handling crises is still stuck in a mentality left over from the age of dictatorship and has not made any basic changes. [This philosophy] still maintains enmity towards the people; it still monopolizes political power; it is still greedy politically and economically; it still is barbarous and bloodthirsty and operates in secret. It’s only because of this unrestrained political power that various levels of the government dare to misuse their authority to oppress the masses. [Such as when] the government in Shanwei, Guangdong dared to open fire in broad daylight and take innocent lives without regard to law or morality.

We believe that if the authorities in the People’s Republic cling to the current system, and do not speedily promote reforms that develop freedom and democracy—and that if the citizens who have been oppressed do not proactively use every legal means available to secure their rights and freedoms—then the human rights promised in the constitution will become void, and that similar bloody conflagrations will arise at some other place, in some future time, and involve different people. This is because the Chinese government will be unable to peacefully resolve these conflicts without a free and democratic constitutional government, or without an open political climate, or without the open expression of views held by those with varying interests. Without such conditions, [the realization of] freedom and democracy in China is hopeless. Without such conditions, the temptation of profit will entice the government into using violence to oppress the masses. This pattern of violence will further entrench the central government into a trap from which there is no escape.

Currently, the villagers in Dongzhou are still under surveillance by armed police officers. Their lives are still in a situation of great danger. The bloody reality of what actually transpired is still hidden and distorted by the government. The right of the [Chinese] people to know about this instance and have a free space for political discourse has been denied by the government.

We are outraged. We are saddened. If we were to sit and idly watch as this country perpetuated an atmosphere of terror, then we would not be worthy to be considered as true Chinese people.

Because of this, we make this urgent statement and make the following demands:

1. The Central Government must take effective measures to end the use of violence in quelling disturbances, and prevent the deterioration of the situation into violence. The government must also insure the safety of all its citizens.

2. The government and the judicial branch must immediately investigate what really happened [in Dongzhou]. We suggest that the national and provincial congresses appoint special committees that will courageously make a thorough investigation.

3. Immediately allow the media to report about this incident, guaranteeing both the reporters rights and their safety. Also, the government should allow supervision and questions from the media.

4. The government officials and military police who ordered the shooting of civilians must be judged by an independent judiciary and punished severely.

5. In a timely manner publish a name list of those killed and injured, and offer compensation to the families of those killed.

6. According to the constitution and the law, legal confiscation of land must be accompanied by reasonable compensation and resettlement. This compensation and resettlement should be given a public hearing. Any land that was confiscated illegally should be returned without cost to the village collective and/or villagers to which it originally belonged.

7. According to the law, investigate and punish any corrupt or greedy behavior related to the electric generating plant.

8. Peacefully resolve this bloody incident. Begin reforms in the system of governance; promote the independence of the judiciary and the media, open up local elections, gradually grant the freedom of speech and freedom of religion promised in the constitution, allow basic civilian rights such as democratic elections.

Finally, we call on all Chinese citizens with conscience, international organizations and human rights groups to strongly condemn the violent acts committed by the Guangdong government, closely observe developments in the area, and help the villagers of Dongzhou uphold their legal rights.

We do not beg anyone for our freedom—rather we claim the freedom of which we have been stripped. We are firm in our courage and our actions. We uphold our dignity, in the struggle for our rights as we push forward the independent growth of society. We urge the Chinese government to uphold the promise in the constitution to “respect and guarantee human rights� as China gradually undergoes the process of peaceful democratization.

Signatories:

Ding Zilin (Beijing University Professor)
Jiang Peikun (Beijing University Professor)
Bao Zunxin (Beijing Historian)
Liu Xiaopo (Beijing Independent Author)
Yu Jie (Beijing Independent Author)
Wang Yi (Chengdu Independent Author)
Zhao Dagong (Shenzhen Independent Author)
Sun Wenguang (Shandong University Professor)

[Full Article]

[This letter is referenced by Philip Pan in The Washington Post article entitled, “China Wavers on Police Shooting� published on December 14, 2005; Page A21]

Go to original article:

http://www.qian-ming.net/gb/default.aspx?dir=scp&cid=60