TodayOnline: Was villager killed deliberately?
Photographs of suspicious death ignite fury in China after going viral on the Internet
BEIJING - The photographs are so graphic that they appear cartoonish at first glance: A man crushed under the tyre of a truck, his head detached from his flattened spinal cord.
The pictures of Mr Qian Yunhui, 53, have gone viral in China, with hundreds of thousands of people viewing the images online since the weekend. And they accuse officials of gruesomely killing Mr Qian to silence his six-year campaign to protect fellow villagers in a land dispute.
Illegal land seizures by officials are common in China but the horrific photographs of Mr Qian's death on Saturday have ignited widespread fury. It is the latest in a string of cases in which anger against the government has been fanned by the lightning-fast spread of the Internet.
Officials in the city of Yueqing in Zhejiang province, which supervises Mr Qian's home village, insist that the photographs show nothing more than an unfortunate traffic accident, making their case in a hastily-arranged news conference on Monday.
Mr Qian's family, some Chinese reporters and residents of Zhaiqiao Village cite the photographs as proof of foul play and a sloppy cover-up.
In 2004, the city government approved construction of a power plant in Zhaiqiao Village. The company building the plant got virtually all the arable land in the village and the 4,000 or so villagers received no compensation, according to a blog post written four months ago under Mr Qian's name.
At the time, Mr Qian and other villagers went to government offices to protest against the land grab. Riot police officers beat more than 130 people and arrested 72.
Mr Qian, the former Communist Party representative in the village, travelled to Beijing to file a petition with the central authorities. In the news conference on Monday, city officials said that Mr Qian had been arrested, found guilty of criminal conduct and imprisoned at least twice.
Mr Qian continued his crusade after recently being released from prison. According to local media reports, he was the overwhelming favourite of the villagers in a coming election for village chief before his death.
IT WAS MURDER, WITNESS CLAIMS
Around 8.30am on Saturday, Mr Qian received a call on his mobile phone and walked out as he was talking, his wife Wang Zhaoyan was quoted as saying.
An hour later, he was run over by the truck, his body crushed beneath the left front tyre. The driver has been detained, according to the Yueqing city government.
Chinese news reports said another villager, Mr Qian Chengwei, told people that he had watched the victim being held down on the road by several men wearing security uniforms. One of the men then waved his hand and a truck drove slowly over Mr Qian.
Villagers arriving at the scene were immediately suspicious. They refused to allow the police to remove Mr Qian's body and a scuffle ensued.
Government officials told the Guangdong-based newspaper Southern Daily that the witness was a drug user. The paper also reported that the witness and the victim's family members were detained, though subsequent reports say Mr Qian's family members have been released.
Internet users and Chinese reporters have continued to question the explanation by city officials, pointing to discrepancies revealed by the photos. Why does the front of the truck show little sign of impact or blood? Why, if Mr Qian had been accidentally hit while walking upright, is his body lying completely perpendicular to the truck's tyre? Why was a brand-new security camera at the intersection where he died not working on Saturday? Who called Mr Qian that fateful morning?
"A few years ago, there were other people petitioning with my dad," family member Qian Shuangping told China Business Daily. "Some of them were bought off. Some of them got scared. We said, 'Just take some money and forget it. What if something happens to you?' My father wouldn't listen to us." The New York Times
... and that includes murder.
30 December 2010
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