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| Aggrieved citizens from China's provinces live in a crowded Beijing village while petitioning the government, which plans
to raze the village ahead of the Olympics. Ng Han Guan/AP |
China to evict petitioners before Olympics
Aggrieved citizens from China's provinces live in a crowded Beijing village while petitioning the government, which plans to raze the village ahead of the Olympics.
from the September 13, 2007 edition
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Mr. Han sleeps with three other men on a hard bed, using sacks for sheets, that takes up most of the space in a tiny, cramped room he and his fellow petitioners rent for $2.40 a night in the squalid Fengtai slum. He has come to this maze of narrow lanes, lined by one-story brick and concrete huts, 24 times since 2003, he says, and has been arrested twice.
Most of the petitioners will stay in Beijing even if they are evicted, predicts Professor Hu, "because they have no choice. If they return to their hometowns they risk being sent to labor camps or to psychiatric hospitals" by vengeful local officials angry at the petitioners' efforts to report on them.
"If we go home we'll be arrested or beaten up or sent to a labor camp," says Ma Jing, a neighbor of Han's who claims her son was unfairly jailed. "I've been caught several times by policemen sent here by my local government, but I've always come back."
Chinese law allows the police to sentence petty offenders to up to four years of laojiao, or "reeducation through labor," with no judicial review of the punishment.
The petitioners, who rent their overcrowded rooms from landlords or flop-house owners, are not entitled to any compensation, nor to any relocation assistance. Beijing's muncipal demolition regulations offer such help only to property owners or tenants with long-term rental contracts with the local government.
Officials at the Fengtai Construction Committee, responsible for demolishing the houses and building the new roads, did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.
Though the planned evictions, scheduled for Sept. 19, appear motivated by the effort to complete Asia's largest railroad station before the Olympic Games open next August, "the timing is targeted at the petitioners," argues Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher with Human Rights Watch.
"It is clearly related to the 17th Party Congress," due to open on Oct. 15, at which the ruling Communist Party will set its future course and anoint the next generation of leaders, he says. The meetings, which take place once every five years, are especially sensitive moments in the Chinese political calendar and "the leadership wants a good atmosphere without petitioners," Hu suggests.
That leaves Han, leafing through a satchel full of papers that document his case, even more uncertain of his future. "I have no idea what I will do," he says. "There is no place for me to go."
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