[09.9.2 Telegraph] 10,000 villagers clash with police over industrial pollution

渔音谦谦

China riot: 10,000 villagers clash with police over industrial pollution
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/6126874/China-riot-10000-villagers-clash-with-police-over-industrial-pollution.html
Up to 10,000Chinese villagers have clashed with police in eastern China in thelatest incident in a wave of social unrest caused by fears overindustrial pollution.                                                                                         
  By Peter Foster in Beijing
    Published: 4:20PM BST 02 Sep 2009
               

The riot in the eastern coastal province of Fujian comes a weekafter two high-profile cases of lead poisoning involving more than2,100 children raised public concerns over the environmental cost ofChina's headlong rush for economic growth.
More than 2,000 riotpolice were called to restore order on Monday after initially peacefuldemonstrations turned violent when residents from Fengwei town inFujian accused local officials of ignoring their complaints about thestench coming from a broken-down water treatment works.
At least10 people were injured in a riot in the early hours of Tuesday morningas two police cars were smashed and several officials and plant workerstaken hostage, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center forHuman Rights and Democracy.
A villager contacted by The DailyTelegraph said that local residents blamed the plant, which opened in2007, for "turning the sea dark" and "causing cancer".
Thewoman, who asked only to be identified as Ms Liu for fear of reprisalsby local officials, said that 19 villagers under the age of 40 hadunexplained cancers and that the once-prosperous area that was home towell-paid merchant seamen had been rendered all but uninhabitable bythe smell.
Simmering disgruntlement among the villagers turnedto outright violence after rumours circulated that the plant waspumping untreated effluent from a leather tannery upstream as well assewage.
"The protestors found an agreement signed between theleather factory and the sewage works, which proved the sewage works didnot serve only for domestic wastes disposal purpose as the governmentclaimed," Ms Liu said.
The local government denies the villagers'claims, issuing a statement saying that the effluent from the plantconformed to environmental standards, but acknowledging that the planthad broken down and that measures were being taken to repair it.
Seniorofficials had been sent to the area "to strive for the understandingand support from the public" according to the Quanzhou Evening News, alocal newspaper, however villagers said they remained deeplydistrustful of the local government.
Fujian, on China'ssoutheastern coast, is striving to become China's next big greenfieldrefinery sites and is currently testing a £3.5bn petrochemicalsre finery in Quanzhou which is a joint venture between Sinopec, theChinese oil giant and Exxon Mobil and Saudi Aramco.