By Benjamin Kang Lim
562 words
25 June 2007
06:11
Reuters News
English
(c) 2007 Reuters Limited
(Adds details, paragraphs 3, 9-11)
BEIJING, June 25 (Reuters) - Police are questioning five villagers in
southwest China after a protest aimed at stopping mining at a mountain
they consider sacred turned into a riot, the official Xinhua news
agency said on Monday.
In the first Chinese media confirmation of the riot which Reuters
reported on June 11, Xinhua said police had "captured some of the
villagers" from Daofu county, home to an ethnic Tibetan population, in
Sichuan province on May 27.
Some villagers had been released after questioning but five remained in
custody, Xinhua said, adding that shops had reopened and villagers
returned to their fields.
"Life has returned to normal in Daofu county," Xinhua quoted the local
government as saying.
Local residents told Reuters the riot had erupted in Bamei town in
Daofu county amid protests against a lead and zinc mine at Yala
Mountain in the Tagong grasslands. It is one of nine mountains which
Tibetans hold sacred.
China keeps a tight grip on dissent across this vast nation and often
cracks down on public protests, especially in ethnic-minority regions.
Maintaining social stability is one of the Communist Party's key
concerns.
Xinhua quoted Daofu county chief Li Chunlan as saying the local
government had sent working teams to villages to persuade residents to
stay within the law.
About 300 villagers smashed mining equipment, destroyed cars, hurled
stones at police and attacked members of the work teams in an attempt
to halt work at the mine, Xinhua said.
Two government workers were seriously injured in the attack, Xinhua
said without elaborating.
Li said the government was considering paying compensation to local
residents.
An unidentified Buddhist monk said the mountain was not sacred, Xinhua
said, adding that a villager who took part in the protest had said the
real objective was to seek bigger benefit from the mine's exploitation.
ELDERS DISAPPEARED
The news agency said no one had been killed in the riot.
But a source with knowledge of the incident said a pregnant woman
suffered a miscarriage.
Several Bamei village elders had disappeared after they tried to
petition the government, residents said.
Reuters obtained a copy of the petition in which villagers complained
that the exploitation caused environmental degradation, killed
endangered animals and drove away tourists.
"The sound of machinery and explosives broke the tranquillity here,"
the petition read.
"It also sabotaged the dream of herders to become financially well
off," the petition read, invoking the government slogan to enrich the
have-nots of society.
The lush Tagong grassland lies in a remote, sparsely populated part of
western Sichuan that Tibetans have historically considered the Kham
region, part of a cultural Tibet that extends beyond the borders of the
Tibetan Autonomous Region.
Chinese troops marched into predominantly Buddhist Tibet in 1950 and
nine years later the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the Himalayan
region, fled into exile after a failed uprising.
Beijing keeps a tight rein on Tibet's outlying regions, home to many
minorities, which are also rich in minerals and energy.
China is hungry for energy, metals and other natural resources to feed
the world's fourth biggest economy.
