Officials responsible for Guizhou protests fired
Xinhua reported that the third autopsy of the girl showed no signs of sexual violence and that the cause of death was drowning. Her father and brother insist however that she was a happy girl and had no reason to take her own life as the police initially claimed.
What is more, two days ago the girl’s parents complained that the police held them for hours, well into the night, and forced them to sign a statement accepting 30,000 Yuan (US$ 4,500) for funeral expenses. Previously they had opposed burial, calling instead for further tests on the body.
Provincial authorities announced the dismissal of Shen Guirong, Wengan public security chief, and Luo Laiping, chief of the county's legal affairs committee, for gross negligence in the 11 July protests (see photo) when 30,000 people took to the street to protest the rape and murder of the girl by people thought to be protected by the authorities.
By contrast, Guizhou Communist Party secretary Shi Zongyuan said people were exasperated by the officials’ decision over housing demolitions and resident resettlement to build reservoirs. For this reason the “incident may appear to be random, but in fact it was inevitable.”
Guizhou police arrested 59 suspects after the riots and promised maximum severity against “criminal elements in Wengan and its neighbouring areas.”
At the same time more than 1,000 senior officials in Guizhou were summoned to the capital Guiyang yesterday to be briefed on the riots.
As the Olympic Games approach, Beijing wants in fact to avoid any disorder and is warning that it will go after all protesters as well as officials who fail to prevent demonstrations.
Indeed the government is concerned by the rising number of people willing to use violence, people like a resident in Zhangjiajie (Hunan province) who yesterday ignited liquefied gas containers in a government office building in apparent revenge for the demolition of his property, injuring 12 people.
As China’s economy soars, more and more ordinary Chinese are becoming desperate. “Public discontent has become widespread, and the underprivileged have been driven to desperation,” said Jing Tiankui, a sociology professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Unable to voice their discontent, they are often quite ready to resort to drastic action when they're stepped on.”
Unable to directly act against the abuses of public officials, the population has turned to petitioning higher authorities, but only two out of every 1,000 cases are ever resolved, according to mainland media.
“If the system is not reformed, the political outcome for the government could be quite disastrous,” Professor Jing said.
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