Police officials sacked in wake of wild protest

By Staff Reporters  |   2008-7-4  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

GUIZHOU Province yesterday sacked two top police officials of Weng'an County where a dispute over the cause of a girl's death escalated into a violent protest against the county government due to "improper handling" of the issue by local authorities.

Shen Guirong, the police chief of Weng'an, and Luo Laiping, commissar of the county police bureau and head of the county's politics and law office, lost their posts.

Meanwhile, the provincial government ordered an investigation into top Party and government officials of the county over dereliction of duty and abuse of power that has nurtured a grudge among local residents over the years, Shi Zongyuan, the Party chief of Guizhou, told a special conference on the protest.

Shi urged local authorities to search out and punish criminal elements who took advantage of the dissatisfaction with the county authorities and fanned the incidence into a mass protest, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

The protest, in Weng'an County on Saturday, involved up to 30,000 people and resulted in the torching of 160 government offices and more than 40 vehicles, officials said. More than 150 police and protesters were injured.

Shi said the superficial trigger of the protest was the death of the 17-year-old student, but it was a "culmination of deep-rooted grudge" from the public over the local authorities' repeated violation of citizens' interests when they handled mines, residents relocation and property demolition to give way to urban construction.

He said some officials handled disputes involving these issues in a "rough and simplistic" manner.

Shi said the Party's Weng'an committee and the county government had undeniable responsibility in the protest. He said some Weng'an government officials were too ready to play the police card in case of emergencies instead of making basic efforts to smooth out the disputes.