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Last of the neighborhood

By Wang Huazhong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-01 07:54

Zhao Xing's house, the only one still standing in Zhaojiadui village in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, is pictured on Thursday surrounded by a trench. [Photo/China Daily]

Demolition teams go to great lengths to evict homeowner

BEIJING - It has been a week since Kunming resident Zhao Xing and his family have had difficulty getting in and out of their home, which is surrounded by a trench measuring 4 meters deep and 7 meters wide.

Located within the second ring road of Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan province, Zhao's house is the last remaining one in the village of Zhaojiadui, which has been flattened for a redevelopment project.

He has held out because a compensation deal has yet to be agreed between the 53-year-old homeowner and the demolition authorities since the project was announced at the end of 2009.

Zhao told the local newspaper Spring City Evening News that the electricity and water supplies were cut off earlier this year, though the family of three, including his 83-year-old mother, did not become overly concerned until Oct 14.

Around 4 am on Oct 14, Zhao awoke to the sound of windows being smashed. When he got up, he discovered that someone had smeared excrement on his house and bound the gate with steel bars, the report said.

From that point on, the harassment continued to escalate. Men wearing camouflage clothing used bulldozers to dig a trench around the house from Oct 18 to Oct 25, Zhao told the newspaper, adding that after it rained it looked like a moat.

The water in the trench is up to 2 meters deep in some places, forcing the family to use large stones or planks of wood to get in and out of the house, according to the report.

Food, drinking water and gas canisters have been brought in by Zhao's daughter and friends to help them hold out against the forced demolition of their home.

Along with placing the house under siege, on Oct 27 a group of four or five men shot out some of the remaining windows with what Zhao assumed to be pellet guns, the report said.

A picture in the newspaper showed a window that had been penetrated by a fast-moving object, which left cracks on the glass pane.

After media coverage highlighted the incident, investors in the redevelopment project reportedly apologized to Zhao's family on Friday night. They were also assured that electricity and water would be restored, as well as that the trench would be filled in over the weekend.

In response to the city's bid to reconstruct its shantytowns, Zhao's family is not the only one in the area who refused to move and has been harassed.

Only a few hundred meters away from Zhaojiadui, a resident of the neighboring village of Lijiadui reported to the police that on Oct 19 his windows were also shot, leaving holes similar to those that appeared at Zhao's house.

According to media reports, the man, who is using the alias Zhang Wei for security reasons, also alerted police to 17 snakes having been thrown into his kitchen on the same day.

Cao Wu, another householder who has chosen to remain in Lijiadui village, became involved in a quarrel with a demolition squad, who beat him on Friday.

He told the local news portal Yunnan.cn that two of the men held him down for 10 minutes, while a third one hit him with stones.

Cao's wife tried to record the incident, but the gang grabbed her camera before destroying it, Yunnan.cn reported.

An official with the demolition agency was quoted by the portal as having said that Cao sustained his injuries as a result of "running on the construction site" and falling on the ground.

The official, surnamed Song, said the homeowners who are holding out against demolition have asked for exorbitant amounts of compensation, which are at odds with government policies.