CHINA: A police inquiry into the case of Fu Xiancai - an activist for the rights of farmers moved by China's Three Gorges Dam project who was paralysed after an attack last month - has concluded he must have broken his own neck.
The activist said he was set upon by unknown thugs as he walked home from a police interrogation on June 8th. He had been summoned by the Public Security Bureau in his home county of Zigui because officials, including local police chief Wang Qiankui, were furious about an interview he gave to German TV.
In the interview, he said he was being harassed by local police for trying to complain to the powers that be about inadequate compensation for those who have been dispossessed.
He is an active campaigner for the rights of people displaced by the Three Gorges Dam project in Hubei Province, a deeply sensitive political issue.
On his way home, Fu said an unknown assailant hit him from behind with a heavy object, a blow so severe it shattered three of his vertebrae. He was left unconscious - probably for dead - on the side of the road. Since the attack, he has regained only the use of his arms.
In its report, the bureau in Zigui said it had found no footprints other than those of Fu Xiancai at the scene of the attack. "No injury was found being caused by someone else; therefore, no case can be established," it stated.
His family has questioned the fairness of the inquiry since the beginning, as members of the investigating team were also involved in the reported campaign of harassment against Fu.
According to sources close to the family, Fu was quizzed for three hours before police handed over the report to his family yesterday and sources close to him say his interrogators repeatedly asked if he had fallen over.
They warned the activist not to appeal this decision or file a new complaint, even though the written statement he received clearly states he has the right to appeal the decision. Investigators did not reveal the names of the forensic experts who took part.
The Human Rights group in China said in a statement it was strongly concerned about the independence, accuracy and fairness of the inquiry.
"The Zigui PSB is abusing its investigatory mandate by unlawfully pressuring Fu Xiancai to forgo any legitimate appeals process and refusing to disclose the experts who determined that Fu could have single-handedly struck himself from behind with such force as to shatter three of his vertebrae," the group said.
The dam was designed to stop flooding on the Yangtze river and produce much-needed hydroelectricity. But it required moving one million people, generating anger and resentment. The issue is particularly volatile around Zigui, home to large numbers of relocated people. Many say they have received nothing by way of compensation.
The dam has led to a huge amount of corruption - one local official was executed in 2000 for taking nearly €1 million in bribes, and scores of bureaucrats have been arrested for graft.