An urban management official has been sacked following an
incident on Monday in the central province of Hubei, in which a man
who tried to film a conflict between local para-police and
villagers was apparently beaten to death.
Qi Zhengjun, chief of the urban administration bureau in the
city of Tianmen, is among more than 100 people under police
investigation, said the city's party chief, Bie Bixiong.
Qi was also under secretary-general of the city government.
More than 50 para-police, known in Chinese as "Chengguan",
reportedly beat Wei Wenhua, general manager of a construction firm
in Tianmen, to death on Monday afternoon.
Wei, 41, was attempting to use his cell phone to film a clash
between the "Chengguan" and villagers who were trying to prevent a
garbage truck from dumping refuse near their village of Wanba.
Police have so far detained 24 "Chengguan" staff and arrested
four of them.
An autopsy on Wei was carried out on Tuesday, the result of
which will be released in a week.
Bie, the city's top official, described the incident as
"infuriating" and "unforgivable" and said that "all the people
involved will be punished severely according to law, no matter who
they are."
The city government promised free schooling for Wei's daughter,
14-year-old Wei Zhen. The girl described her father as
"kind-hearted" and "hard-working ... a man of integrity, always my
role model."
Monday's clash also injured five villagers, three of whom
suffered fractures and are still in the hospital.
The conflict with the "Chengguan" started when the latter's
sanitation department dumped garbage near their village, which
caused an unpleasant odor and contaminated drinking water.
Tianmen is a medium-sized city near Hubei's provincial capital,
Wuhan. Its urban area has about 280,000 residents, and it produces
at least 300 cubic meters of waste daily.
The sanitation department has sought to drain two fish ponds in
Wanba village and build the city's first waste disposal center
there.
(Xinhua News Agency January 11, 2008)