Chinese Police Attack Village

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN

BEIJING (AP) _ Police shot and killed at least two people in a dawn raid meant to force destitute residents of a farm village in southern China to pay an agricultural tax, people in neighboring villages said Friday.

Police sealed off Yunxing village in Jiangxi province after the attack by some 600 officers Sunday, said residents interviewed by phone from Beijing.

Villagers who had tried to keep police out by blocking a road with an iron gate fought back with shovels, sticks and other improvised weapons, said a resident of nearby Xidan, who gave only his surname, Wu. He said two people were killed and at least 18 injured.

A resident of another nearby village, who identified himself only as Mr. Zhu, said three people died and as many as 30 were injured.

A government official in the nearby city of Yingtan said there was a "sort of conflict between armed police and villagers in Yunxing causing some casualties." He refused to give his name and declined to provide details, saying the case was being investigated by the provincial government.

The clash was an unusually bloody episode in a series of recent clashes reported in areas throughout China between authorities and farmers, who say their tax burden is too heavy and accuse local officials of squandering public money.

Thousands of farmers attacked local government offices and officials' homes in another part of Jiangxi in a tax protest last year. No casualties were reported on that occasion, but human rights groups said dozens were arrested.

Area residents said Yunxing villagers had refused to pay an agricultural levy demanded by local government since 1998, when catastrophic flooding of the Yangtze river wiped out their land.

Jiangxi is one of China's poorer inland provinces, and farm incomes average about $300 a year.

Villagers in Yunxing fought off earlier police attempts to arrest their leader, Su Guosheng, they said. "This time they must have determined to make it successful," said Zhu.

Police vans appeared on the edge of the village early Sunday morning, residents said. Officers fired warning shots in the air, but villagers battled on, some shouting that police "wouldn't dare fire at the people," Wu said.

Police later fired into the crowd, said Wu, who described the situation in the village as "out of control."

It was unclear whether Su, the protest leader, had been arrested.

Zhu said the township government that administers Yunxing and 12 other villages charged the villagers $25 per person in tax annually _ more than double the $8.50 charged elsewhere in Jiangxi.

Zhu said his own village stopped paying the tax last year but now feared the police attack was the start of a crackdown.

"The problem isn't that we choose not to pay it. The problem is we don't have the money to pay it," he said.

Local officials confirmed a clash took place, but denied that taxes were the cause.

A spokesman at a local political and legal committee said the incident was part of a police crackdown on gangs.

Police refused to comment and a doctor at Yingtan People's Hospital said he had been ordered not to discuss the incident. Other hospitals refused to comment and a reporter at Yingtan's daily newspaper said the government had ordered a news blackout.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001