Posted on 02/22/2009 3:47:36 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
China quake victims clash with police: rights group
2009 2 20 16:43
Agence France Presse
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009 All reproduction and presentation rights reserved.
More than 2,000 victims of last year's massive earthquake in China clashed with police over alleged misuse of reconstruction funds and the death of a protester in custody, a rights group said Friday. The violence occurred Wednesday and Thursday in the town of Baolin in Sichuan province, an area hit hard by the May 12 quake, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement.
A government official in Baolin confirmed to AFP by phone that the clashes took place and that one person had died, but gave no other details other than to insist the death was not related to the conflict.
The rights group said a crowd of local villagers gathered to protest in Baolin on Wednesday after finding out that government money they were supposed to receive to help repair their homes had been used instead to fix roads.
Three people were detained after police moved in to break up the crowd, said the group, which regularly issues information about incidents of unrest in China that go unreported by the country's official media.
One person who was among those detained "suddenly" died at a police station, it added, giving no other details on the individual.
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