CHINESE PEASANT LEADER JAILED FOR TALKING TO FOREIGN JOURNALISTS
January 21st 2008 11:18
Chinese peasant leader Yu Changwu has been reportedly sentenced to two years' hard labour over a land dispute involving allegedly corrupt officials in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang.
The South China Morning Post reported that Yu, who led a bold campaign to recover seized farmland, was sentenced for talking to foreign journalists.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that an internet account posted in Yu's name had earlier accused corrupt local officials in Fujin of acting like landlords. It said villagers had unilaterally proclaimed private ownership of their appropriated village lands, in apparent conflict with the Chinese Constitution.
A family member told the Sydney Morning Herald, “Yu was arrested for talking to foreign journalists. So I cannot agree to talk with you until after he returns home."
The Herald said, “If Yu's conviction is linked to discussions with foreign journalists, as family members believe, it would raise serious questions about the integrity of China's Olympics Games commitment to allow foreign journalists to freely conduct interviews across the country.
“But China also has tough anti-subversion laws, which may have been acted upon in this case.”
The Herald visited the village after Yu was arrested, reporting that officials had been engaged in a costly 15-year cover-up that had impoverished 40,000 peasants. The dispute relates to the local government's messy handling of an agricultural project that was supposed to have reclaimed swampy "wasteland", but instead appropriated prime farm land.
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