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Migrants accuse security guards
Hundreds of angry migrant workers mobbed government buildings and smashed police vehicles in a Guangdong county on Thursday after crowds accused government-hired security guards of responsibility for the death of a motorcycle-taxi driver, Xinhua reported yesterday.
It is the third violent riot on the mainland in less than a month and comes at a particularly sensitive time ahead of next month's Olympics.
The violence erupted at dawn at a village in Boluo county, Huizhou , and eventually the melee involved more than 1,200 migrant workers, villagers and riot police, according to witnesses.
Villagers and the county authorities said migrant workers were angry over the death  at about 4am on Thursday of  motorcycle-taxi driver Ouyang Jiusheng , 40, from Hunan , who the migrants claimed was beaten to death by  village security guards for refusing  to pay a 200-yuan (HK$229) protection fee.
Netizens claimed that at least three security guards were killed and many injured by rioters armed with knives. Authorities said yesterday that four security guards had been injured.
Residents described it as a copy of the riot over a dead girl three weeks ago in Guizhou .
State media and county authorities said at least 100 relatives and friends of the dead  driver  and others went on  a rampage, demanding  justice over Ouyang's death and refusing to allow his body to be removed from where he died near a petrol station before  his murderer was identified.
'The driver's relatives, fellow villagers and people who did not know about the exact context of what had happened were incited to mob the police station, the office building of the village government and nearby shops,' Xinhua said yesterday.
Xu Zhennan , a salesman from nearby Shangnan village, said he saw migrant workers attack villagers with knives and water pipes.
'At least 300 villagers hit back at the migrant workers when they tried to set fire to the village's government office,' he said, adding that many people had been injured.
A county spokesman said eight people at the site were taken into custody,  including six relatives of the dead driver. Police later released seven of the eight detainees.
The spokesman insisted the man had been killed in a traffic accident. Xinhua cited county officials as saying that the driver's death was still under investigation.
Xinhua said it was not known whether the security guards were involved in the driver's death or whether they had tried to levy illegal fees on him. The report said the driver's relatives wanted medical experts from Hunan province to examine the body because they did not trust local authorities.
Mainland media  have widely covered  regional-government discrimination against migrant workers and violent  security guards hired by local authorities.
Postings on mainland bulletin boards said the driver was beaten to death by government-hired security guards, but the full text of the postings could not be opened, indicating the stories were considered sensitive and had been removed.



Hundreds riot over suspicious death of taxi driver