CHINA:POLICE IN southwestern China opened fire on protesters trying to block the construction of a gold mine earlier this week.
At least one person was killed and five were critically wounded, according to government and human rights groups sources.
The Chinese Human Rights Defenders network said police fired on up to 100 villagers on Monday in Saixi village in the province of Yunnan province, killing one, during a clash over land use.
Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper reported that two were killed and more than 20 wounded in the clashes between police and villagers and employees of China's second largest gold mining company Zijin Mining.
Citing unidentified sources, Ming Pao said riot police clashed with around 100 villagers on Sunday.
"After warning shots fired by the police were ineffective, and as the personal safety of the police was severely threatened, police were forced to use anti-riot guns, police clubs and shields in accordance with the law to defend themselves," the local government in Wenshan prefecture stated on its website.
The government statement noted that 11 protesters were injured and one of the demonstrators later died en route to hospital. It also said the villagers were armed with knives and threw sticks, rocks and bricks at police when the shots were fired. Five police were injured, the authorities said.
The clashes did contain an ethnic dimension, as many of the villagers are member of the Miao ethnic minority. The clashes erupted after police and mining company officials began taking away video cameras from the villagers, who had not agreed to compensation offered by Zijin Mining and were outraged when construction of the tungsten mine went ahead, the rights group said.
In a separate incident, villagers on the southern island of Hainan clashed with officials during a protest about insufficient compensation for land that was being confiscated to build a golf course.
The central government is keen to ensure that social unrest is not an issue in the final run-up to the Olympic Games, particularly with tensions simmering in Tibet and adjacent areas, which include parts of Yunnan. Moreover, security forces have been tough on protests against land-grabs and other abuse of land by powerful local interests and property developers.
Land disputes have become a regular source of unrest in China, with villagers and farmers often complaining about inadequate compensation in land-use deals usually brokered between the government and developers.