koo1917
9th September 2009, 13:26
Massive anti-pollution protest in China’s Fujian province
Wednesday, 2 September 2009.
10,000 villagers in city of Quanzhou clashed with riot police, smashed police vehicles and took government officials hostage
chinaworker.info
"Our water is polluted. It is because of the plant. The government does not want this known," one local woman told AFP as a new mass protest against industrial pollution broke out in China. "A foul smell from the sewage plant has permeated our village for years," another villager told the South China Morning Post. Two weeks of protests against a polluting tannery and oil refinery culminated in a 10,000-strong protest on Monday 31 August. Locals in the town of Fengwei, Fujian province, are furious over official disinterest and inaction in the face of a huge leap in cancers in the area. Local anger boiled over in a series of confrontations and clashes that saw villagers attack and try to immobilise the plant at the centre of the controversy.
Authorities in the city of Quanzhou confirmed that more than 10,000 people had clashed with some 2,000 riot police in Fengwei on Monday. Police reportedly fired warning shots and used tear gas to disperse the crowd. The protesters pelted them with stones. The city government accused "a small group of people with ulterior motives" of causing the protest. Local people say a tannery and an oil refinery emit pollutants that have poisoned their drinking water and caused cancer. Their peaceful protest began two weeks ago, but when the local authorities refused to act on their complaints, the movement grew.
"After an official struck a woman, villagers seized two officials as hostages and several thousand people gathered in recent days," a worker at a local shipyard told AFP. On 31 August local officials accompanied by police tried to enter the plant and free the detained officials, and this was the spark for clashes that reportedly lasted several hours on Monday night.
China has seen a wave of stormy anti-pollution protests in recent weeks. Villagers in Shaanxi province and Hunan province have protested against mass lead poisoning eminating from unlicensed or poorly monitored smelting plants. New protests have been reported from Yunnan province in recent days where hundreds of children have also been found suffering from exposure to dangerous levels of lead.
Wednesday, 2 September 2009.
10,000 villagers in city of Quanzhou clashed with riot police, smashed police vehicles and took government officials hostage
chinaworker.info
"Our water is polluted. It is because of the plant. The government does not want this known," one local woman told AFP as a new mass protest against industrial pollution broke out in China. "A foul smell from the sewage plant has permeated our village for years," another villager told the South China Morning Post. Two weeks of protests against a polluting tannery and oil refinery culminated in a 10,000-strong protest on Monday 31 August. Locals in the town of Fengwei, Fujian province, are furious over official disinterest and inaction in the face of a huge leap in cancers in the area. Local anger boiled over in a series of confrontations and clashes that saw villagers attack and try to immobilise the plant at the centre of the controversy.
Authorities in the city of Quanzhou confirmed that more than 10,000 people had clashed with some 2,000 riot police in Fengwei on Monday. Police reportedly fired warning shots and used tear gas to disperse the crowd. The protesters pelted them with stones. The city government accused "a small group of people with ulterior motives" of causing the protest. Local people say a tannery and an oil refinery emit pollutants that have poisoned their drinking water and caused cancer. Their peaceful protest began two weeks ago, but when the local authorities refused to act on their complaints, the movement grew.
"After an official struck a woman, villagers seized two officials as hostages and several thousand people gathered in recent days," a worker at a local shipyard told AFP. On 31 August local officials accompanied by police tried to enter the plant and free the detained officials, and this was the spark for clashes that reportedly lasted several hours on Monday night.
China has seen a wave of stormy anti-pollution protests in recent weeks. Villagers in Shaanxi province and Hunan province have protested against mass lead poisoning eminating from unlicensed or poorly monitored smelting plants. New protests have been reported from Yunnan province in recent days where hundreds of children have also been found suffering from exposure to dangerous levels of lead.