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DAM-L 3G resettlers charged with "disturbing public order" (fwd)
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Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 17:18:51 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: 3G resettlers charged with "disturbing public order"
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China dams up dissent of Three Gorges project
'Disturbing public order' is charge against farmers demanding due
compensation in relocation.
Julie Chao - Cox Washington Bureau
Sunday, May 6, 2001
Yunyang, China --- He Kechang retired to a village above the Yangtze River
hoping to spend his last years with his family working their half-acre of
land.
But as construction started on the Three Gorges Dam about 200 miles
downriver, the former ship worker found himself slowly drawn into a morass
of deceit and corruption.
The government sent millions of tax dollars to the town of Gaoyang to
relocate 13,000 farmers and make way for the dam. But He and his family
never saw their share.
Instead, they saw officials spend the money on impressive new buildings for
the government and police. He turned up evidence that officials
artificially inflated the number of residents and amount of land in order
to collect more money from the central government while denying farmers
their rightful compensation.
He, who is 61, felt compelled to act. He collected documents, got petitions
signed and traveled several times to Beijing to lodge complaints and seek
out journalists. Sometimes he went at his own expense, sometimes with
donations from villagers who gave what they could afford, even as little as
25 cents each.
"My son tried to tell him, if a farmer tries to seek justice from the
government, the only possible outcome is failure," said his wife, Xiong
Dezhen, "but he didn't listen."
For his troubles, He is sitting in jail with three other men, all in their
50s and 60s, all informally elected as village representatives and now
charged with disturbing the public order. Wen Dingchun was arrested last
month in Yunyang county while hiding from police. The others --- He, Ran
Chongxing and Jiang Qingshan --- were arrested in Beijing as they prepared
to meet reporters. They are awaiting the outcome of a trial in Yunyang.
The four are among thousands who have traveled to Beijing and provincial
capitals to expose graft and appeal for help. However, He and his
colleagues are the first to be arrested for doing so.
Coercion, intimidation
In an area that is already seething with anger at official corruption, the
arrests may serve only to increase the tension. While the state-run Chinese
media gushes about how smoothly the resettlement is progressing,
demonstrations and clashes between peasants and officials have been
reported in the foreign media. One local official in charge of resettlement
has been killed.
The controversial $25 billion Three Gorges Dam has drawn worldwide
attention for the potential environmental problems it may cause. Now, as
China carries out the huge task of resettling 1.3 million to 1.9 million
people by 2009, almost half of them farmers, experts fear the relocation
issue could boil over into a volatile social problem.
Many of those being forced to move say they are not opposed to the dam
itself. It will generate electricity, help flood control and improve
navigation, the government says. When completed in 2009, it will be 1.4
miles long, making it the world's largest hydroelectric dam.
But as the deadline draws nearer, farmers say officials are increasingly
resorting to coercion and intimidation to get them to move. In Gaoyang,
located in Yunyang county, many said they recently started spending their
days hiding in the fields to avoid being detained or forced to agree to
compensation they believe is less than they are due.
A Beijing sociologist who uses the pseudonym Wei Yi for fear of government
retribution warned that the area could become "a hotbed for constant social
instability." Wei's blunt comments, published two years ago in a mainstream
political journal, offered rare criticism of a government program.
Local officials were emboldened to take an even harder line in February
after Beijing issued new regulations saying people are not allowed to
resist moving.
"The local leaders have taken this to mean you're a criminal if you
resist," Wei said in an interview. "The new motto of Yunyang officials is
'resettlement by legal means,' meaning they reserve the right to use police
to chase the people out."
Probe International, a Canadian group opposed to the dam, and Human Rights
Watch have begun jointly monitoring the issue.
"The reason this case is such a bad precedent is, if they arrest a person
as mild as He Kechang --- which means they can't accept peaceful means (of
protest) --- then they're just waiting for the extreme means, murdering a
corrupt official or burning down government buildings," said Dai Qing, a
former journalist who is China's most outspoken critic of the Three Gorges
project. "These things will all happen."
In an interview more than a month after the arrests, Qi Lin, director of
the government's Three Gorges Resettlement Bureau, said no one has been
detained for resisting resettlement or filing complaints.
"That's ridiculous," he said. "No government at any level would do
something so stupid."
Promises found to be lies
The dam's opponents say it is simply a political project designed to give
China's leaders the international prestige they crave.
By turning a huge section of the surging Yangtze River into a giant lake,
critics say that countless archaeological treasures will be lost and the
ecological damage will be immense. As work proceeds, construction quality
has been compromised by corruption and lack of oversight, they say.
Yet the leadership has so far proved impervious to criticism. The state-run
media are barred from scrutinizing the project, and opposition voices are
kept from speaking out. Dai, the former journalist, once tried to organize
a panel discussion on the project, but hotels were warned not to rent their
conference rooms to her and participants were individually pressured not to
attend.
Of all the project's problems, relocation has been the most politically
sensitive. While the small number of environmentalists, engineers and
archaeologists in China can be silenced, the peasants cannot.
Eight hundred people from Yunyang county were moved to Jiangsu province in
eastern China last year. They discovered that most of the promises they had
been given --- such as free schooling for their children and welfare for
the elderly --- were lies. Several dozen people returned to demand redress
and inform their old neighbors, according to farmers interviewed in Gaoyang.
Qi, the resettlement official, acknowledged the peasants have complaints.
"In one place I visited, more than 100 people surrounded me to ask
questions. (On my next trip,) I bet there will be 300 people," he said.
"One time, someone grabbed my leg and started crying on my pants."
But he said grievances can be addressed through education campaigns, and
regular auditing has reduced fraud. By the end of last year, close to 84
percent of the $3 billion allocated so far for resettlement had been
audited. Of that, $244 million had been misused or embezzled, Qi said.
One official has been executed, two have gotten life sentences, 133 have
received varying other sentences and another 140 have been punished with
administrative measures --- such as losing their job or party membership.
Still, the temptation is almost irresistible for many officials.
"They know the real disaster won't come for five to 10 years, by which time
they won't be around, so they take as much money as they can," Dai said.
"When has a county chief ever seen so much money fall into his lap?"
The state has allocated about $4,000 per person for resettlement, but much
of that goes to building roads, hospitals and other public projects. Less
than half is intended to go directly to individuals. The main complaint of
those being displaced is the total lack of any open accounting of how the
money is being spent.
"I trust the (Communist) Party, and I trust the party has a good policy,"
said Zhao Heying, the wife of Ran Chongxing, one of the four men in jail.
"All we're asking is for (the local officials) to carry out Beijing's policy."
But Wei, the sociologist, believes the root of the problem is China's
political system itself.
"Under our current political system, it's impossible to resolve the Three
Gorges problem," he said. "We don't have a free press, and officials are
not accountable to the people. The central government does not listen to
opposing views."
The greater Chongqing municipality, which includes Yunyang, Wanxian and
several other counties, is home to 80 percent of the people whose homes
will be submerged by the reservoir.
The remaining 20 percent live in Hubei county.
This section of the Yangtze River valley has long been one of the most
impoverished regions of China. It has seen repeated flooding and lack of
investment in infrastructure. According to state statistics, the average
per capita income of rural households in Chongqing is $210 per year, less
than half the level in Guangdong, a prosperous province bordering Hong Kong.
Peasants say they have already suffered for years under the excesses of
local officials, who spend public money on lavish banquets, levy
artificially high taxes and sometimes beat those who don't pay.
"At a village meeting recently, each person got 6 renminbi (72 cents) and
two popsicles (for coming), but the village leaders were all drinking
Sprite," said Zhou Dexing, 58. "So I asked the party secretary, 'Did you
buy that with relocation funds?' He didn't answer."
No faith in local leaders
In late March, the Gaoyang government started issuing notices to people who
have resisted moving, saying their rights would be forfeited unless they
gave a written reply within one day. If they didn't sign, they would be
moved to higher land in Gaoyang, which is the worst option for farmers
because higher land means steep hillsides that are difficult to cultivate.
Frequent announcements on village loudspeakers warned that those who didn't
comply would be subject to criminal detention.
Like many in Gaoyang, Jiang Zhuhua, 55, said he's afraid to go home.
"Yesterday, I took some peanuts and a bottle of water and hid in the hills
all day," he said. "I've been supporting the dam project and government
policy from the beginning, but they just don't act according to the policy."
Residents of urban areas are unhappy as well. In an old area of Wanzhou,
when some laid-off factory workers and retirees who were passing the
afternoon chatting with neighbors were asked about relocating, bitterness
quickly surfaced.
"We barely have enough money to eat," complained Yu Zongjing, 80, a retired
schoolteacher. "It's not that we're unwilling to move. They don't give us
any information. They don't say how they've spent the relocation funds. We
trust the central government, but the local government is rotten."
Xiong, 56, and Zhao, 48, said they have not been allowed to see their
husbands in jail. One week after they were arrested, 40 officials came to
Xiong's house for two hours and seized dozens of items, including name
lists and address books. They also confiscated photos Xiong and her husband
took of themselves at Tiananmen Square on one of their visits to Beijing
and suggested the two traveled on public funds for personal reasons.
The displaced peasants are confused and frustrated. Many have a fatalistic
outlook.
"I'm waiting for the central government to come fix the problem," said
52-year-old Wang Anxiu, the mother of two sons who are too poor to find wives.
And if they don't? "Then I'll drown," she replied.
Asked his opinion of his local leaders, farmer Zhou Dexing sighed and
suggested that corruption is inevitable. He quoted a well-known saying of
the architect of China's economic reforms: "Deng Xiaoping said, 'It doesn't
matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.' So I
guess all the village cadres are good cats."
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