Riot erupts over forced relocation in northern China

Jun 13, 2007, 11:23 GMT

Beijing - Hundreds of people rioted after armed police tried to evict them from apartments earmarked for demolition in the northern Chinese city of Hohhot, local police and a rights group said on Wednesday.

About 500 police plus workers from a development company were confronted by some 5,000 residents who were angered by a compensation offer of only 40 per cent of the city's average housing price, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said.

At least 20 people were injured, three were arrested and several police vehicles were damaged as the residents fought for most of last Friday to prevent the demolition of a fence around Hohhot's central Tielu (Railway) community, the centre said.

An officer at Hohhot's Xincheng district polic station told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone that six police vehicles were damaged in the fighting but he refused to give further details.

The city government declined to comment on the incident.

The information centre said most of the 13,000 residents of the Tielu community were railway workers and their families.

They were offered 1,300 yuan (170 dollars) per square metre in compensation, compared with the average market price of 3,500 yuan (460 dollars).

The residents blocked several roads for about six hours, and two women were seriously injured in the rioting, it said.

Last week, a housing rights group highlighted serious abuses in the redevelopment of Beijing and other Chinese cities.

Abuses of displaced residents' rights included little or no notice of eviction, false promises of compensation, violence and intimidation, the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) said in a report.

'In Beijing, and in China more generally, the process of demolition and eviction is characterized by arbitrariness and lack of due process,' COHRE said.

'Victims of forced evictions, their legal representatives and housing rights defenders who oppose or challenge evictions are subject to ongoing intimidation, harassment and, in some instances, imprisonment for their activism,' it said.

Preparations for the 2008 Olympics were encouraging faster and more draconian measures to relocate Beijing residents, COHRE said.