Protesters clash with police over 'red river' pollution
- Source: Global Times
- [01:08 July 15 2010]
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By Deng Jingyin
About 1,000 protesters in Jingxi county, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, blocked roads and paralyzed traffic on Tuesday, voicing their anger at an aluminum factory that they say has turned a local river red with chemical pollutants.
The protesters from Pangling village marched toward the county government building, shouting slogans and holding banners that read, "Return my home, Return my river," but were blocked from the building entrance by armed police and government officials.
"All villagers returned home Wednesday and we are trying to resolve the conflict after communi-cating with them in order to maintain social stability," the head of the Jingxi county government Information Office, surnamed Chen, told the Global Times Wednesday without giving additional details on the clash between protesters and police.
The incident was resolved Tuesday without casualties and traffic is flowing freely in the county, she added.
The protest was directly triggered by a conflict between villagers and Xinfa aluminum factory executives on July 11. The Shandong Xinfa Group has invested heavily in the factory, a major pro-ducer of aluminum chloride in Guangxi.
Villagers claimed that the Xinfa factory has endangered their health and living environment by polluting the local river, the main source of their drinking water.
The villagers said the river turned red after the aluminum factory began operations in 2007 without taking environmental protection measures. Their complaints have circulated on the Internet, with several entries and photos posted on baidu's online forum.
The information official refuted the accusations, insisting that the factory is safe.
Xinfa refused to comment on the protest.
Constant disputes between the villagers and factory officials turned violent on July 11, when the villagers tried to stop the factory from building a new transportation lane to replace an older road, washed out by flashfloods during a recent earthquake. The villagers said the road construction was undertaken without government approval.
According to the government, some villagers destroyed factory equipment during the July 11 violence.
The protesters said some people were beaten and injured by factory workers and that several elderly people were pushed into the river.
Tuesday's disturbance was the latest in a string of environmental protests over the past several years.
In January, hundreds of demonstrators in South China's Guangdong Province donned hospital masks to protest plans for an incinerator.
