Chinese Police Use Tear Gas, Clubs To End Standoff

By Radio Free Asia
November 09, 2006

HONG KONG—Hundreds of riot police in southern China used clubs and tear gas to disperse villagers surrounding a brand-new granary during its ribbon-cutting ceremony, ending an 18-hour standoff and injuring several people, witnesses say.

“They fired hundreds of rounds of tear gas and put up a two-km blockade,” one witness told RFA’s Mandarin service. “The police walked over the villagers who were sitting on the ground, including the elderly.”

“They also used police dogs—more than a dozen German shepherds...The elderly villagers were just sitting on the ground. But the police did not treat them as humans. They just stampeded over them.”

“One villager sustained a head injury from beating. Another was clubbed by police in the chest. I am burned around the armpit by shells from tear-gas canisters. Three of my fingers are also burned. Around 11:00 a.m., the riot police took the guest merchants away.”

Up to 1,000 police were described as moving in at around 10:00 a.m. local time Thursday, Nov. 9, around the granary, which was built on what had been farmland in Sanzhou village, Guangdong province.

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