TAIWAN NEWS
September 15, 2005

Lawyers Told to Steer Clear of Village in Guangdong

Agence France-Presse

Government officials in China's southern Guangdong province yesterday vowed to resolve an irksome land dispute case in accordance with the law, as they rounded up lawyers and told them to stay away from the issue.

The case involves farmers in Taishi village who have gathered enough names to legally have village head Chen Jinsheng removed from power over corrupt land practices, but have been obstructed by powerful local bureaucrats.

Academics and lawyers around China view the case as a test of the central government's determination to fully implement laws on village democracy, especially in Guangzhou city, the capital of China's richest province.

"After accepting this case we will handle it in accordance with the law," a spokesman for the Guangzhou municipal government surnamed Liang told AFP.

"Right now we are doing an audit of the books. We will handle this in accordance with the law."

For weeks civil affairs officials from Guangzhou's Panyu district which oversees the village refused to accept the petition and repeatedly sent in police to arrest villagers and break up peaceful protests.

After finally accepting the case last week, police again Monday descended on the village, arresting 48 residents and storming off with account books that villagers insist contain evidence of Chen's wrongdoing.

"We still don't know why they did this to us, we wanted to protect the accounts as evidence, now the government has the evidence," Taishi villager Feng Weihan said.

As of yesterday morning, 24 of the arrested villagers had been released with some 100 villagers gathering around the village government offices waiting for the release of others.

Meanwhile Yang Zaixin, a lawyer with the Beijing-based Empowerment and Rights Institute, disappeared into police custody as he arrived in Guangzhou to look into a separate land dispute case.

"Yang Zaixin was detained on Sunday and interrogated and threatened," Hou Wenzhuo, head of group that has sought to educate farmers on their rights, told AFP.

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