Bootleg deaths spark village rioting in Hunan
By Edward Cody (Washingtonpost.com)
Updated: 2005-12-05 10:32

The officials said their mission was to guarantee stability and investigate who had ransacked the town hall, the farmers recalled. But more than 200 peasants came from their houses and surrounded the authorities, the farmers said. The police just stood in a line for a few hours before remounting the trucks and bouncing back down the road.

"We've never seen anything like that before, only on TV," an elderly woman said as Deng Suilong recounted the story.

Following that attempt, Yantang sent civilian officials to the village to persuade the peasants to give up their allegations of wrongdoing in the interests of stability. At the same time, the two dead men's families were paid compensation, $21,250 for Deng Silong's family and $22,500 for Deng Jianlan's.

Although the visit by camouflage-clad riot police and the payments of such large sums of money were firsts here, the rebellious farmers of Shangdeng have a long history of trouble with the authorities in Yantang.

The China National Tobacco Corp., which produces 1.8 trillion cigarettes a year, has long been the world's biggest producer. Since the government relies on it for a significant chunk of the budget, officials at all levels take the monopoly on tobacco trading seriously.

According to law, farmers here can grow what they want -- some plant rice and other crops -- but if they grow tobacco, they must sign a contract with the local tobacco-buying station. Only when they meet a production quota set in the contract, the rules say, can they look for other buyers at higher prices. When the truck set out on its bootleg run Aug. 30, farmers acknowledged, Shangdeng had met only about 80 percent of its quota for the season.

But law enforcement was not the only reason Yantang's party and government leaders were waiting that night, the peasants here said. Deng Suilong , Deng Silong's older brother, was a particularly active elected vice mayor of the village from the year 2000 until this spring, they said, improving the dirt road leading in from the highway and taking the lead on other improvements.

In the process, Deng Qiu, the former member of the elected village council, said, he refused to abide by the practice of paying bribes to Yantang officials to get their approval for funding the projects. That, he said, earned him their enmity, and they struck back during this spring's elections.

Although Deng Qiu said he was again elected vice mayor, Yantang authorities ruled the vote invalid and annulled the results. At the meeting where the decision was announced, he recalled, his friend Deng Silong stood up and shouted insults at the party and government officials from Yantang, accusing them of manipulating the election because they did not get the bribes they felt they were due.

"So that's why they were gunning for him when he was smuggling tobacco that night," Deng Qiu said.

Courtesy of Washingtonpost.com