Human rights group says peasants beaten over China dam protest
Updated
A human rights group says Chinese police have arrested and beaten unconscious peasants who were peacefully protesting official corruption that was responsible for a weak dam and left their homes vulnerable to catastrophic flooding.
Human Rights in China says hundreds of people who joined the sit-in on a main road in southern Guangdong province on Wednesday were attacked by over 500 police officers, military police and riot police sent to disperse them.
The group says the protesters' farmland and fishponds, near Shenlei village, were destroyed when typhoon Hagupit swept away a river dam in late September, but they said they were not victims of a purely natural disaster.
It says local officials had removed and sold palm trees which were planted next to the dam, leaving it unprotected against severe weather, the report said. The villagers asked for help after it collapsed, but have so far received none.
