Two more sacked over teen-death riot

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-7-5  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

TWO more top-level county officials in southwest China's Guizhou Province were sacked yesterday following a violent protest over a teenage girl's death last Saturday.

Wang Qin, Party secretary of Weng'an County, where the protest happened, and Wang Haiping, the head of the county government, were dismissed, according to the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Long Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of the Qiannan Prefecture, was appointed as the new Party secretary of Weng'an.

The provincial committee also recommended Xie Xiaodong to the county's legislature as the new county head.

The violent protest, involving about 30,000 people, broke out following a police report on the controversial death of junior high school student Li Shufen.

Police said the 17-year-old drowned, but her family and relatives and many villagers contended she was raped and killed.

On Thursday, two top police officials in Weng'an were sacked over what was described as "severe malfeasance."

Provincial Party chief Shi Zongyuan said the deep-rooted reasons behind the protest were "rude and roughshod solutions" by local authorities to solve disputes over mines, demolition of homes for public projects, the relocation of residents for reservoir construction and many other issues.

A third postmortem conducted on Li confirmed that she had drowned, confirming the results of the two previous autopsies.

Five experts from the Guizhou Provincial Department of Public Security and the provincial Higher People's Court conducted the third postmortem on Wednesday. The girl was buried later on the same day.

There were doubts expressed over the cause of Li's death on the Internet and by media outlets and the public, Shi told a press conference on Thursday afternoon.