Reopening of waste plant in Beijing angers residents

The Associated Press
Published: August 31, 2008

BEIJING: Scores of people protested in Beijing against a garbage disposal plant that they said had been releasing noxious fumes, and two demonstrators were hurt in a scuffle with security officials, a rights group said Sunday.
The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, based in Hong Kong, said the protesters Saturday had called for the resignation of the top environment official in the Chaoyang district of Beijing , where the Gao'antun garbage incineration plant is located.
The rights group said about 500 people had been involved in the protest, but the number could not immediately be confirmed. The information office of the Beijing Public Security Bureau said Sunday that it had no information about the incident.
The demonstration was held near the plant, and a tussle between protesters and the authorities resulted in the injuries to two protesters, the group said.
The rights group also said that one of the organizers of the protest was missing Saturday night and presumably had been taken away by security officials.

An employee of a restaurant near the road junction where the demonstration was held said "many people" had taken part in a protest, some of them wearing face masks.
The employee, who gave only her surname, Zhang, said she was not clear about the reason for the gathering.
The group said the protest had been organized by residents of two apartment complexes in the district. Telephone numbers of the complexes were not immediately available.
A man from a team set up by the Chaoyang district government to look into the issue said about 100 people had participated in the protest. He refused to give his name or provide more details, saying he was not authorized to speak to the media.
According to the rights group, thousands of residents living near the garbage disposal plant have suffered from rank and poisonous air released by the plant.
It said the plant had closed during the Olympic Games, which were held in Beijing in August, but resumed operations after the Games ended.
The statement said respiratory and other health problems had surfaced among some residents near the plant.
Separately, a petitioner from the Hubei Province in central China was detained and sent to a labor camp for 15 months after accepting a phone interview by a foreign journalist during the Olympics, another rights group said Sunday.
On Aug. 28, Wang Guilan was sent for re-education through labor for "disturbing the public order," and was believed to be held at a detention center in Enshi, a city in Hubei, said the Chinese Human Rights Defenders, which is based overseas.
A man who answered the phone at the Enshi detention center refused to check whether Wang was being held there, referring all further queries to the Enshi Public Security Bureau, where telephones rang unanswered.
China's re-education system, in place since 1957, allows the police to sidestep a criminal trial or a formal charge and send people directly to prison for as long as four years to perform penal labor.
Critics say the system is misused to detain political or religious activists, and violates suspects' rights.