The situation at Dongzhou Town, Red Bay, in the city of Shanwei, Guangdong Province is rapidly deteriorating. According to the villagers, the government has not only arranged tanks to occupy the city, machine guns have also been set up, ready to strafe villagers on the street at anytime. Up to now, 70 people are known to have been shot to death. Most of the dead are young people in their twenties. The dead bodies were buried to destroy any evidence of the shootings. Families are not allowed to claim the bodies of their relatives. Sound of Hope Radio has phone-interviewed villagers of Dongzhou Town regarding the case.
[Link to audio clip from Sound of Hope Radio Network]
(Recording) Villager: “They didn’t allow us to go inside to identify the bodies. Approximately 70 people were shot to death. The government, however, reported only one or two deaths. In fact, they are covering up things.”
Reporter: “Did you go to claim any of the bodies?”
Villager: “Some bodies were buried by the government, some could not be found, and some were still there, not yet buried.”
Another villager said that there were many deaths and injuries. Many people are still missing at present. Tanks have lined up at the highest spot in the northern part of the town. The villager expressed that he wished the outside world would pay attention to their situation and provide help.
(Recording) Villager: “Everyone is indeed moaning and groaning, yet there is nowhere to go to appeal the injustice. Are our farmers’ lives truly worthless? They can just kill us at will, shoot innocent farmers at will? I hope you can report the facts about what is happening here. Now, the villagers are living in deep water and scorching fire. Those government officials truly are tyrants.”
Reporter: “Have you been staying home without going outdoors?”
Villager: “There is no way to be out. There is not even food or water. They simply don’t consider we are human beings. They randomly shot around, like shooting animals. Even when someone was shot once, if they found that he was not dead, they would fire another round at him. I don’t think bandits in the old days were even shot this way.”
As to such a major incident, the employees at the Shanwei power plant said they knew nothing about it.
(Recording) Employee: “This is the Shanwei power plant. I am an operator at the major switching board. We have never heard of anything you just told us on the phone. Are those matters associated with us?”
Our interview team has made over hundreds of phone calls to villagers in Dongzhou Town since December 7. Most of the phones have been disconnected or nobody was answering. Some calls did go through but no voice could be heard after being connected, most likely due to scrambling of the call by the Chinese government. At present, villagers are almost completely isolated in their own homes. No one has dared to go outside, phone lines have been cut off or scrambled and the communication between villagers has also been almost entirely cut off.
Interview phone calls from overseas medias such as The Epoch Times and New Tang Dynasty TV were often cut off in the middle of the conversation. According to Radio Free Asia , all the villagers who called in to the radio station before, cannot be reached anymore. Their cell phones and home phones have been disconnected.
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