Railway builder apologises for village scuffle over land dispute
Villagers in Henan province said they were attacked on Sunday morning by more than 300 uniformed construction workers with metre-long sticks. The bureau said the villagers were "unco-operative".
The China Railway 13th Bureau apologised to villagers in Huangchuan after admitting it sent hundreds of workers to rough them up at the weekend, but it stopped short of taking all the blame.
Villagers said they were attacked on Sunday morning by more than 300 uniformed construction workers with metre-long sticks. They were demonstrating against the bureau, which planned to build a new railway line in their village in central China’s Henan province.
The bureau said villagers were "frequently uncooperative" and had tried to block construction by getting in the way of workers.
Other villages were also accused of “planting trees and digging fish ponds” by the site to reap higher compensation from the land acquisition, the report said.
“The folkways of Huangchuan villagers are too poor, and the social atmosphere there is way too bad,” Jiang told reporters. “The local government tried their best, we tried our best, but in the end such an unfortunate incident happened.”