Shanghai: Government men beat anti-eviction activist
The Shanghai government is evicting 10,765 families to make way for the World Expo 2010. Says the activist: "We are homeless. We don't know where we'll spend the coming winter."
Pudong (AsiaNews/SCMP) The man behind a campaign against forced eviction of Pudong district residents was beaten up and evicted by the local government. Song Shitai, 60 years, lives in Pudong's Xueye Estate (a large residential complex); he represents hundreds of families who presented a petition to Beijing against forced eviction and inadequate compensation.
The government strategy of moving residents is being carried out in view of the 2010 World Expo. To prepare for the event, the government needs land currently occupied by the homes of thousands of people.
"The head of the district's construction department led about a dozen workers at 8am, carrying several hammers, broke all my doors and windows and forced me and my wife to move out immediately," Song said. "After I refused to leave, they started to beat me up and took all my furniture and belongings away."
The activist said the violence follows his decision to go public with the story of the Pudong residents. "We are homeless. We don't know where we'll spend the coming winter," Song said, adding that Xueye had its electricity supply cut off since June.
A spokeswoman for the Shanghai Letters and Complaints Office confirmed that evictions were proceeding in Pudong but denied the use of violence. "The eviction project has proceeded like clockwork and achieved a very satisfactory result. We have obtained the consent of 99 per cent of the affected residents in Pudong [to move out]," she said, adding that the government aimed to finish the project by the end of this month.
But Qi Huirong, another resident of Pudong's Xueye Estate, said: "At least 600 to 700 families were not satisfied with the compensation offered and signed a letter of complaint to the State Letters and Complaints Bureau in June."
According to the Shanghai World Expo Co-ordination Bureau, the government will make land covering more than 5 sq km available for the exhibition project. Almost 75 per cent of the land, home to 10,765 families, is in Pudong.
Conflict between the government and residents arising from the expropriation of homes and land flared in 2002, the year in which Shanghai was nominated as the site of the 2010 global exhibition. Xu Zhengqing, a local activist committed to the struggle, was yesterday condemned to three years in prison for having "picking quarrels and provoking fights". At the beginning of the year, XU went to Beijing to petition the government against the forced eviction of residents in the area.
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