Word: dongzhou
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Dates: during 2005-2005
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When local riot police backed by armed security forces drove tanks into the southern China village of Dongzhou on Dec. 6 and began shooting at demonstrators, there were no journalists present. Still, in this age of the Internet and cell phones, news soon began to filter out that at least six villagers had been killed. And by the end of the week the authorities admitted something had gone terribly wrong, announcing that a top police commander had been detained...
...Yudui, it started out as a relatively peaceful protest of 1,000 villagers against a plan by local officials to seize land to build a power plant. The 26-year-old air conditioner salesman had returned to his home town of Dongzhou to get married, but instead his family this week buried him after a secret funeral. Hundreds of riot police and soldiers, plus several tanks, were called in to disperse the protesters with tear gas-not that unusual in a country where the number of demonstrations over everything from environmental degradation to land seizures are increasing every year. Such...
...What happened next in Dongzhou, though, was far from an ordinary protest. Just after 7 p.m., say two locals reached by TIME by phone, riot police opened fire on the villagers, who responded by throwing homemade explosives normally used by local fishermen to stun fish. By the time the smoke had cleared several hours later, Lin and at least five others were dead, according to the two eyewitnesses, making the Dongzhou riot one of the deadliest incidents in recent years. "We never imagined that they would shoot people," says a Dongzhou housewife surnamed Huang, whose father was injured...
...confrontations between police and protestors-suggests that China?s authorities have realized that in an era of high-speed communication, killings in a remote village can?t be swept under the rug. Still, the state-run media has published only official accounts of the tragedy, and multiple roadblocks near Dongzhou ensure that journalists don?t investigate too closely. China?s future may depend on which aspect of the Dongzhou tragedy dominates its political system: Brute force by local police, or increasing accountability from higher-level authorities...
...What happened next in Dongzhou, though, was far from ordinary. Just after 7 p.m., say two locals reached by TIME by phone, riot police opened fire on the villagers, who responded by throwing homemade explosives. By the time the smoke had cleared, Lin and at least five others were dead, according to the two eyewitnesses. "We never imagined that they would shoot people," says a Dongzhou housewife surnamed Huang, whose father was injured in the fight. On Saturday, a government report said three villagers had died, adding that the police were forced to shoot in self-defense. But three locals...