China defends 'massacre' sparked by land riots

The Chinese government is defending the killings by police of villagers in southern China, saying officers opened fire after protesters angered by land requisition assaulted authorities.

In its first official statement on the violence, the government said yesterday that hundreds of people attacked a wind power plant on Tuesday in Dongzhou, a village northeast of Hong Kong, and attacked police.

Residents say police killed up to 20 people on Tuesday when they fired on people protesting what they complained were inadequate payments for land taken for construction of a power plant.

The official statement said three villagers were killed and two arrested.

There was no immediate way to reconcile the widely diverging claims of death tolls. If the higher toll were confirmed, it would be the deadliest assault by Chinese security forces on civilians since the military killed protesters around Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989.

Today, hundreds of police surrounded the village and were stopping vehicles at roadblocks, checking for local men.

Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper said villagers wounded in the shooting were “under police control” in hospitals. It quoted one villager as saying relatives were detained after they went to visit an uncle, who was recovering from a gunshot wound to the chest.

Late yesterday, residents said that police have refused to return the bodies of dead loved ones. A news report quoted some as saying officials were trying to hide the death toll, offering families money to give up bodies.

The violence drew highlighted rising tensions in rural China over land seizures for projects such as factories, power plants and shopping malls. Farmers often say they’re paid too little. Some accuse officials of stealing compensation money.

Late yesterday, villagers said a tense stand-off continued around Dongzhou as thousands of troops patrolled the perimeter, and frightened villagers either remained in their homes or argued with police over relatives’ bodies.

“Many police are surrounding the village today,” said one woman, who refused to give her name for fear of official retaliation. “We are not permitted to leave the village.”

The South China Morning Post newspaper reported that Dongzhou villagers said authorities were trying to cover up the killings by offering families money for the bodies.