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Raymond Li

The papers ordering Huang Gongdao to be detained while his house was demolished last month are now all he has to aid his fight for justice.
All the 63-year-old retiree's possessions, including the identity card he is asked to present whenever he seeks help from the courts, were lost when local officials levelled his six-bedroom home in Beijing's Chaoyang district. 
Court security guards gave Huang and his family no time to collect their belongings. They were waiting for him when he returned from shopping at a vegetable market on May 24 and took him to a local detention centre and gave him the papers that are now his only proof of identity. 
'I only found a pile of rubble after I came back from the detention centre 15 days later,' Huang said. 
The demolition of Huang's home in a shanty town flanked by high-rises near the southeastern part of Beijing's Second Ring Road followed an eight-year fight by the family for compensation from the district government.
 The shanty town comprised three villages of about 6,500 households in 2004, when it was earmarked for demolition by the Chaoyang district land reserve agency. About 600 households are believed to still be holding out in their homes, which face imminent demolition. 
 Neither the district government nor the district court were immediately available for comment, but forced demolitions such as Huang describes appear to run counter to a central government directive against them. A State Council regulation on home acquisition and compensation which took effect in January last year states that no home should be demolished before a compensation package is in place.
It has largely failed to stop forced demolitions, however, because of the difficulty in holding municipal-level officials accountable. Few homeowners fighting such demolitions can win a court order in their favour because the courts often side with government demolishers and developers.
Huang said the home only had two bedrooms when he and his sister moved in several decades ago. In the 1970s, they got approval from the government to add another four rooms to accommodate a family that had grown to seven members.
 But the family does not have documentation to prove the expansion was approved. The government-appointed demolisher refused to factor in the extra rooms in 2004 when offering compensation of just 370,000 yuan (HK$453,000).
Huang said they could not agree on a deal because the money would be insufficient to buy another home big enough for the family.
'No mater how dilapidated our home was, we at least had a place to stay and we will end up homeless simply because the government said that they needed the land,' Huang said. 'How absurd and unjustifiable it all is.'
Huang said they had no choice but to ignore an eviction order they received from the Chaoyang district government housing authorities in December 2010. 
Last month's demolition was carried out on an order from the Chaoyang District People's Court. By the time he reached home, his wife, his sister and her husband, who are all in their early 60s, had been handcuffed before being forced out of their home and taken to a detention centre. 
Huang's brother-in-law, Miao Changrong , still has marks on his wrists from the handcuffs. Huang said the demolition was so abrupt they had no chance to gather essential items such as their IDs or bank-deposit books.
 His family has now split: some are staying at a relative's house and others in rented accommodations. They have been to the district court four times to ask about their belongings, but have yet to receive satisfactory answers.
The court has also refused to hand over video clips it said were made during the demolition and which the family said would help them track down their belongings.
They have also been trying to seek justice at their jurisdiction's municipal-level court and even the Beijing High People's Court, but with little success. Often Huang has trouble even proving who he is. 
 'But it works every time when we show them the detention orders,' Huang said.



Demolition leaves family scattered, defenceless