Ethnic unrest in Guangxi over water pollution by industrial plant

AsiaNews

07/15/2010

Thousands of villagers come out to protest against polluting aluminium plant, but are beaten by company security guards. Police face sit-ins and demonstrators, who belong to the Zhuang ethnic minority.

Beijing– Thousands of ethnic Zhuang villagers in Jingxi County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, took to the street to protest over an aluminium plant that they say released sewage that poisoned drinking water in dozens of villages.

On Sunday, several thousand angry Zhuang burst into the plant, smashing equipment at the aluminium plant. On Tuesday, they blocked roads and a railway line, surrounded the county government’s headquarters where they faced off about a thousand riot police.

“The road leading to the County government building, which is several kilometres long, was packed with villagers holding slogans, and armed policemen fired into the air to warn the furious protesters, » said Huang An, a Zhuang from Lingwan village.

The protesters even painted slogans on their clothes.

More than 100 people were injured in the riot and at least 10 vehicles, including a police car and an armoured vehicle, were set on fire by angry villagers in the protest.

The riot continued yesterday morning, with more protesters injured.

“The water is red and heavily polluted by untreated industrial sewage discharged from the plant. We don’t dare drink water from it, » one villager said.

An exceptional drought in the region has further complicated the situation, affecting more than 2.2 million people and 1.1 million head of livestock short of water and 740,000 hectares of farmland too dry to plant.

Jinxi authorities and state news agency Xinhua have a different spin of events. They claim that residents simply opposed the construction of a new road going to the aluminium plant, but did not mention the pollution problem.

A County official confirmed that clashes first broke out when plant workers tried to rebuild a road running close to Lingwan village, which sparked local opposition. This was followed by protests.

However, peaceful demonstrations outside the plant turned into violent clashes when company’s security guards began beating villagers outside the plan.

Making matters worse, homes near plant were suddenly flooded, causing millions of yuan in damages.

The authorities blamed flooding on a minor earthquake, but residents believe the plant sealed off the underground river by mistake after it had tried to flatten a mountain during a construction project.

According to official figures, there were about 87,000 episodes of social unrest in 2008 across China, due to economic factors, pollution, forced seizure of land and houses, unpaid salaries and much more.

Police have often come down on the part of the authorities and business interest, sometimes provoking violent clashes.

More than 96 per cent of people in Jingxi County are Zhuang, one of China’s largest ethnic minorities. Social unrest in this region can easily take on ethnic connotations, as it does in Xinjiang and Tibet.

Protesters clash with police over ‘red river’ pollution

Global Times

July 15 2010

By Deng Jingyin

About 1,000 protesters in Jingxi county, South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, blocked roads and paralyzed traffic on Tuesday, voicing their anger at an aluminum factory that they say has turned a local river red with chemical pollutants.

The protesters from Pangling village marched toward the county government building, shouting slogans and holding banners that read, « Return my home, Return my river, » but were blocked from the building entrance by armed police and government officials.

« All villagers returned home Wednesday and we are trying to resolve the conflict after communi-cating with them in order to maintain social stability, » the head of the Jingxi county government Information Office, surnamed Chen, told the Global Times Wednesday without giving additional details on the clash between protesters and police.

The incident was resolved Tuesday without casualties and traffic is flowing freely in the county, she added.

The protest was directly triggered by a conflict between villagers and Xinfa aluminum factory executives on July 11. The Shandong Xinfa Group has invested heavily in the factory, a major pro-ducer of aluminum chloride in Guangxi.

Villagers claimed that the Xinfa factory has endangered their health and living environment by polluting the local river, the main source of their drinking water.

The villagers said the river turned red after the aluminum factory began operations in 2007 without taking environmental protection measures. Their complaints have circulated on the Internet, with several entries and photos posted on baidu’s online forum.

The information official refuted the accusations, insisting that the factory is safe.

Xinfa refused to comment on the protest.

Constant disputes between the villagers and factory officials turned violent on July 11, when the villagers tried to stop the factory from building a new transportation lane to replace an older road, washed out by flashfloods during a recent earthquake. The villagers said the road construction was undertaken without government approval.

According to the government, some villagers destroyed factory equipment during the July 11 violence.

The protesters said some people were beaten and injured by factory workers and that several elderly people were pushed into the river.

Tuesday’s disturbance was the latest in a string of environmental protests over the past several years.

In January, hundreds of demonstrators in South China’s Guangdong Province donned hospital masks to protest plans for an incinerator.

Hundreds protest against metals plant in S.China

Reuters

BEIJING | Thu Jul 15, 2010

BEIJING (Reuters) – More than 1,000 people threw rocks at police and blocked roads in southern China in protest at pollution from a plant owned by one of the country’s largest private aluminium producers, state media said on Thursday.

The Chinese government has become increasingly worried about rising public anger at environmental problems, especially pollution.

The official China Daily said that in the latest incident, more than 1,000 villagers in Jingxi county, in Guangxi near the border with Vietnam, took to the streets on Tuesday to protest against the Shandong Xinfa Aluminum and Power Group plant.

« Almost all the residents in Lingwan village were involved in blocking the road to Jingxi county on Tuesday afternoon, and some villagers threw stones at police who had been sent by the Jingxi government, » it cited a government statement as saying.

« One official hit by stones was sent to the hospital, but no other injuries were reported, » the newspaper added.

Residents also blocked the gates to the plant and damaged some production facilities before dispersing.

« Villagers have been very unhappy for a long time about the pollution caused by the plant, » it quoted local government official Qin Weifeng as saying.

The newspaper said the Xinfa is one of the three largest producers in Jingxi, in an area known for production of bauxite and alumina, the raw material for aluminium.

China’s rapid growth has caused many environmental problems, and prompted growing concern among citizens about health problems caused by pollution.

Trading of shares in the country’s largest gold producer, Zijin Mining Group Co, was suspended earlier this week after a leak of poisonous wastewater at a copper mine in the southeastern province of Fujian.

« Mass incidents » — or riots and protests — sparked by environmental problems have been rising at a rate of 30 percent per year, according to China’s environmental protection minister.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Lucy Hornby; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Chinese Villagers, Workers Clash Over Aluminium Plant, Morning Post Says

blommberg

Jul 14, 2010

Thousands of villagers in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region clashed with workers and destroyed equipment at an aluminium plant that they say poisoned their water and flooded 100 homes, the South China Morning Post reported, citing Jingxi county officials.

The Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said yesterday more than 100 people were hurt in the clashes and at least 10 vehicles were damaged by angry villagers, according to the report.

The confrontation erupted on July 11 when the workers tried to construct a road next to Lingwan, Jingxi county said in a statement, according to the Morning Post.

~ par Alain Bertho sur 15 juillet 2010.

Publié dans émeutes, riots, 暴防