Another factory pollution row has triggered a confrontation between villagers and police on the mainland. Up to a thousand residents of Fengxiang, in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, clashed with police yesterday outside a lead smelter they believe has poisoned more than 600 children.
While they were tearing down fences and blocking roads outside the smelter following three days of peaceful protest, a court hundreds of kilometres away passed sentences on two polluters that may signal a tougher approach to the problem, which plagues towns and cities across the mainland.
For the first time, prosecutors charged two managers of a polluting factory with discharging toxic substances - rather than a lesser offence usually punished by a fine - and a Jiangsu court jailed them for six years and 11 years respectively. The official Xinhua news agency called it a judicial landmark.
The Fengxiang villagers had been demonstrating since Friday to press for more help from local authorities. Yesterday, the protesters tried to break into the Dongling Lead and Zinc Smelting plant and tear it down. The local government called in riot police, who clashed with the crowd outside the smelter. Protesters stoned vehicles entering and leaving.
'I saw more than 1,000 people blocking the roads and railway. They shouted and demanded the government demolish the factory,' said a man working at a petrol station 400 metres away who saw the protest unfold.
'The government did not give them any concrete answer, only promising that it will speed up relocation plans. The crowds are getting emotional,' the witness said.
