Three Gorges Resettlement Protesters Detained

China News Digest, 21 July 2002

[CND, 07/21/02] Authorities in Qingdao city of northeastern Shandong province detained 40 petitioners who were requesting that the government return them to their home along the Three Gorges, Reuters reported on Saturday.

According to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, the 40 were protesting on behalf of over a thousand people who were resettled due to the Three Gorges Dam project. In their petition, they described problems that made their life difficult: dialect barriers, shortage of farming equipment and higher cost of living. (Dong LIU)