Massacre in China
Charles Johnson
Fri Dec 9, 2005 at 5:58 pm PST • Views: 300
China Town Sealed After Police Shootings. And this is the country that will host the Olympics.
BEIJING, Dec. 9, 2005 (AP) — Armed with guns and shields, hundreds of riot police sealed off a southern Chinese village after fatally shooting demonstrators and searched for the protest organizers, villagers said Friday.
Although security forces often use tear gas and truncheons to disperse demonstrators, it is extremely rare for them to fire into a crowd _ as they did in putting down pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 near Tiananmen Square. Hundreds, if not thousands, were killed.
During the demonstration Tuesday in Dongzhou, a village in southern Guangdong province, thousands of people gathered to protest the amount of money offered by the government as compensation for land to be used to construct a wind power plant.
Police started firing into the crowd and killed several people, mostly men, villagers reached by telephone said Friday. The death toll ranged from two to 10, they said, and many remained missing.
State media have not mentioned the incident and both provincial and local governments have repeatedly refused to comment.
Frank says: