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China paramilitary police to quell riot
Beijing (AFP) Jul 27, 2006 Paramilitary troops were dispatched to quell a riot in a southwest Chinese city that led to the injury of civilians and police officers, state media and a rights group said Thursday. The clash erupted July 19 when 2,000 protesters surrounded a government building in Bazhong city, Sichuan province, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said. They assembled in anger after four members of a special law enforcement unit had beaten up a young man, the information center said in a statement. When 300 police officers were sent to control the crowd, a violent confrontation broke out, in which at least 30 people were injured from both sides, the center said. The crowd also ransacked about a dozen offices in the government building and trashed two cars parked in the area, according to the center. Following the street clash, 150 members of the People's Armed Police were dispatched to the scene and arrested 21 people, the center said. The Bazhong Daily confirmed on its website that a clash had taken place. It said the clash had been triggered by four officials severely beating a young man, apparently following a shouting match. However it gave a watered-down account of the riot, saying only three people had been injured after they "slipped and fell on some broken glass." The People's Armed Police, a paramilitary unit specializing in tasks such as quelling riots by non-lethal means, has seen a drastic increase in funding and personnel in recent years. A major impetus for this development was the June 1989 Tiananmen tragedy, when the regular army was ordered to silence protesters, which it was not trained for, leading to hundreds of deaths. Protests have been on the rise in China in recent years as the wealth gap has widened and anger has grown over corruption and abuse of power by authorities. The number of "public order disturbances", a government term to describe protests, throughout China rose by 6.6 percent to 87,000 last year, according to official statistics. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links China News from SinoDaily.com
More than 80 dead or missing in China from Kaemi floods
Beijing (AFP) Jul 27, 2006 Torrential rains from Typhoon Kaemi left more than 80 people dead or missing in China Thursday, with a military barracks swept away, landslides wiping out thousands of homes and rivers bursting their banks. |
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