Woman detained for halting premier's car

A WOMAN in a quake-hit county in southwest China who with other villages knelt to stop Premier Wen Jiabao's motorcade was detained for disturbing the public order, then released a day later.

The accusation was made against Liang Yonglan and three other villagers who complained to Wen about the small amount of compensation villagers were given when their land was taken by the local government.

Wen visited the mountainous region of Yiliang County in Yunnan Province to give his condolences on September 8, after the area was hit by back-to-back earthquakes.

They knelt at a crossroads, forcing the 30-vehicle motorcade to stop and causing a 20-minute traffic jam, which "posed severe political and social influences," police said.

The other three men weren't at home during Monday's police raid, so only Liang was taken away for the seven-day administrative detention.

The 29-year-old was released on Tuesday after her relatives paid 1,000 yuan (US$160) to bail her out, The Beijing News reported yesterday.

She dismissed the police accusations, saying she just talked to Wen for no more than five minutes.

Police in Zhaotong City, which administers the county, were investigating whether county police gave the woman a proper punishment.

Yiliang County took 53 hectares of farmland belonging to 2,000 villagers three years ago for industrial development. Each villager got only 28,000 yuan in compensation, almost 50,000 yuan lower than the amount paid in a nearby village, Liang told the paper.

Liang said dozens of villagers, not just four, waited for the premier's arrival that day. She said she followed several others who knelt when Wen's car was about to pass.

"No one ever tried to stop us. The premier and his guards all got out of the car when they saw us. He told us, 'Since you trust me and tell me so many details, I will be sure to give you a satisfying response.' He also shook hands with us," she said. Liang said she never expected more than 10 officers would storm her house nearly two months after Wen's visit.

"I didn't know whether I violated rules, but I couldn't accept police allegations," she said.

A series of earthquakes hit southwest China in September, killing 81 people, damaging many thousands of buildings and causing direct economic losses of 3.69 billion yuan in Yunnan and neighboring Guizhou provinces.

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