One of the witnesses said the overwhelming number of police, water cannon and police dogs made the square look like a war zone. The number of injured strained the capacity of local hospitals and some patients had to be transferred to other hospitals nearby.
Crackdown in Guizhou leaves two dead, hundreds injured: Boxun
http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20141015000047&cid=1103
• 2014-10-15
Photos of the protests and injured protesters in Sansui county in Guizhou have been uploaded to Sina Weibo, including this photo by user 78cvubv820, uploaded Oct. 12. (Internet photo)
Two people were reportedly killed and hundreds injured on Monday after the authorities sent police, armored vehicles and helicopters to disperse some 10,000 protesters in Sansui county, Guizhou province, who took to the streets in protest against the county government's expropriation of large areas of land at low prices under false pretenses, reports Boxun, a Chinese-language citizen journalism site sourced mostly by anonymous users.
On Monday morning, over 10,000 Sansui residents skipped work and class to demonstrate in the square in front of the county hall, according to the website. Witnesses said vehicles in the square were all smashed and that police officers attacked protesters.
One of the witnesses said the overwhelming number of police, water cannon and police dogs made the square look like a war zone. The number of injured strained the capacity of local hospitals and some patients had to be transferred to other hospitals nearby.
Protesters who rushed to the hospital to confirm reports that two people had died were attacked and arrested; the building was locked down for an hour before the bodies and the protesters disappeared, according to an internet user going by the handle Sansui Ren 1. Another internet user who said he witnessed the events, going by the handle Yang Ping, said around 20 student protesters were seriously injured during the police crackdown.
Residents took to the streets after the county government failed to fulfill its promise to build a city administration center in the county after it was merged into a city with nearby Zhenyuan and Qingong counties. The Sansui county government expropriated a large amount of land at low prices for the administration center but the government of the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture decided on Sept. 28 to build the center in Qingxi in Zhenyuan county instead.
An internet user said the Sansui Communist Party committee bought 53 square kilometers of land in Qingxi and used their influence to force local representatives to build the center there.
The failure of the county government to deliver on their promise has led to protesters threatening to reject the merger if the center is not built in Sansui. They also demand the government return the land appropriated for the center and compensate businesses attracted to the county because of it.
Tensions escalated on Oct. 11 when the county's businesses, workers, taxi drivers and some students joined the protests and marched toward the county hall. The Guizhou provincial government deployed thousands of police from across the province in an attempt to quell the protest that evening.
Comments