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Suspicion and anger grow over activist's death

The pair knelt shoulder to shoulder on the cold cement in front of about 30 fellow villagers in the Puqi county market square in Yueqing city, Zhejiang .

'We're begging you to help us retrieve our father's body so we can bury him in peace,' shouted 31-year-old Qian Chengxu, tears trickling down his face, as his younger sister Qian Xuling sobbed beside him

Their father was Qian Yunhui, the 53-year-old chief of Zhaiqiao village, whose six-year struggle against land requisitions ended in his suspicious death under the wheels of a heavy truck on Christmas Day.

Qian Yunhui's body was still in the hands of the local government, and no one knew when he would be released to his children. 'As a son, how can I feel at ease until my father is buried?' Qian Chengxu cried.

The cause that Qian Yunhui was fighting, the circumstances surrounding his death and the government's involvement come together in one of the most vivid examples of corruption and collusion seen all too often on the mainland.

Police insist that Qian's death was nothing more than a traffic accident, a claim rejected by the few villagers willing to speak on the matter and journalists covering the case. In the words of one villager who did not want to be named, fearing reprisals, it looked like 'murder and a massive cover-up'.

Gruesome photos of Qian's crushed body beneath the wheel of a construction truck were posted online within 20 minutes of his death and have circulated widely on the mainland.

His death has triggered pent-up anger among villagers and internet users not only over authorities' handling of the land dispute, but also the investigation into the village chief's death. There has been no independent autopsy; Qian's family and friends and other villagers have been detained at various times, and officials have not addressed questions raised online.

Yu Jianrong , a social sciences professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the incident was part of a pattern of disputes involving land and conflicts of interests between peasants and the government, whose credibility has reached a new low.

Qian Yunhui had been in jail for 31/2 of the past six years for leading villagers in petitioning for proper compensation from the Yueqing city government for land on which the Zheneng Yueqing power plant was built. After serving a two-year sentence, he was released in July - the same month the power plant began operations after seven years of land acquisition and construction. Only a few days before he died, Qian received anonymous death threats for organising groups to block trucks going to the Lingang Industrial Area since December 17, according to a villager too frightened to be named.

Villagers who agreed to talk described Qian as a determined, single-minded and quick-tempered man who was not the sort to back down.

But in the same breath they described Qian as a man of principle. 'He refused a two million (HK$2.34 million) yuan bribe and pretty girls offered by authorities who wanted him to stop petitioning,' said another villager.

Qian's 81-year-old father, Qian Shunnan , said his son had moved his family to Zhoushan , also in Zhejiang, to breed blood clams to sell to restaurants and then to Fujian . But when he heard about the compensation issue in 2004, he returned to Zhaiqiao to help his neighbours in their fight, even though it cost him his business.

During those compensation negotiations, eight village committee members were placed under house arrest in the Yandangshan Hotel for five days in 2004 before signing a contract accepting a one-off payment of 38 million yuan, or about 10,000 yuan per villager. The land parcel totalled 146 hectares, or about 70 per cent of all their farmland, and the residents were given no say in the matter.

Lu Shaohua, director of Yueqing Land Requisition Management Centre, said the land requisition was authorised through legal channels, Sanlian Life Weekly reported.

There reportedly had been a document from the Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission saying that the villagers, in the wake of the deal, were seeking 1.89 billion yuan, but a villager close to Qian Yunhui called it 'a ridiculously high figure entirely made up by the government'. It was Qian's reputation and determination to seek better compensation that won him more than 2,100 out of 2,500 votes in the village chief's election in 2005.

Qian Chengxu, the son who knelt appealing to the villagers, said the family didn't understand why his father was so persistent despite being jailed three times, twice while he was serving as village chief.

'I asked my father to quit as chief because no matter what he did, he would still be blamed,' the younger Qian said. 'But he said people in the village had suffered massive losses.'

Villagers say it was that passion for justice that ultimately cost Qian Yunhui his life.

Qian Chengxu saw the aftermath of the truck incident. 'When I saw my dad I knelt down. I couldn't think. My mind went blank for a few seconds, and then I began crying aloud,' he said. He last saw his father alive on December 23.

Qian Yunhui's father said he believed two witnesses who claimed they had seen three masked men in white gloves throwing his son head-first beneath the wheel of the truck.

Police say they questioned the two witnesses and that one had confessed that he had only heard the story secondhand, while the other admitted to inventing the story in the hope of making money.

There are other suspicions over how the investigation was handled. Although a roadside surveillance camera had been installed only 20 metres from the accident scene, police said it had only been there on a trial basis and had not recorded any images.

It's possible other images are available, though. Qian's fellow petitioner, Wang Liquan , was among the first to arrive at the scene and, villagers said, picked up his dead friend's mobile phone and a watch that could secretly record video. Ten hours later, Wang was detained on his way to meet a Shanghai journalist. He is still in custody.

Independent civil investigators say they have been unable to collect any evidence to challenge the official version of events.

The driver of the truck, Fei Liangyu, has been charged with a traffic accident offence, and officials have given assurances that journalists, lawyers and the public will be allowed to observe the trial.

In the meantime, only 10.6 million yuan in compensation has been turned over to Zhaiqiao village accounts. The villagers say they have not taken a penny as they regard the settlement as both illegal and undemocratic.

According to one villager, officials have frozen that money to prevent villagers funding a journey to Beijing to continue their petitioning. The Puqi town government has impounded the remaining 27.4 million yuan, claiming the villagers refused to provide a receipt.

With Qian's death, the future of any further petitioning efforts is in doubt. Qian Chengxu said there would be 'no second Qian Yunhui' petitioning for more compensation.

'There is nothing more we can do,' he said.

Most of the journalists who went to the village have since left. Residents say they fear being detained if they speak to the press, claiming that some who had already done so had been taken away and had not returned. 'Unless you can ensure our safety, we won't tell you anything,' said one villager, refusing to give his name. 'We're scared to death.'

Other journalists cancelled trips after authorities ordered news outlets not to cover the story, according to one mainland reporter.

On New Year's Day, seven days after Qian's death, thousands of residents of surrounding villages gathered to mourn but were stopped by hundreds of police.

According to two witnesses, some of the crowd threw stones and police detained at least 10 people.

A notice against 'spreading rumours' was also put up that day, and local radio and TV have repeated the warning ever since.

Wang Zhaoyan , 51, Qian's wife of 31 years, gave interviews for two days after her husband's death, but fell and has remained silent since. She now lies in bed, talking and eating little,

Qian's family have declined donations from internet users. 'My dad wouldn't like this, and we don't want to damage his reputation, either,' Qian Chengxu said.

'We're poor, but we can make money as we are still young. We don't want money. We just want to know what really happened.'

Authorities still have not said when they will hand over Qian Yunhui's body to his family for burial.

Chen Mingquan, a friend of Qian's and the chief of nearby Shatou village who has also been petitioning for six years over an unrelated land dispute, said the truth about Qian's death would emerge eventually, as there must be many guilty consciences.

'This scandal,' he said, 'is too big to cover up.'

A dirty business

A rebel village chief is dead, neighbours have vanished

The number of years Qian Yunhui spent in jail for his activism: 3.5

The time in minutes after Qian's death that these photos appeared online: 20

Distance in metres from the truck that a surveillance camera 'failed to record': 20m

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