Forced eviction protester sets fire to himself
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An elderly man set himself on fire as he attempted to prevent authorities from demolishing his commercial buildings Monday in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province.
Officials from the Acheng District Urban Management Bureau went to demolish unauthorized constructions owned by Huang Dequan Monday, but Huang's two sons threw homemade gasoline bottles at officials and attacked them with farming implements, injuring one official and burning the uniform of another, said a statement released by the Acheng publicity department Tuesday.
At the same time, Huang doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire. Firemen extinguished the fire and sent Huang and his sons to a local hospital for treatment.
A preliminary diagnosis shows that Huang and one of his sons suffered second-degree burns, while the other son was slightly injured.
"All the unauthorized constructions belonging to Huang have been demolished," Huang Wenli, director of the Acheng publicity department, told the Global Times Tuesday.
Huang paid 2,900 yuan ($435) to obtain 50-year land use rights for 0.88 hectares of wasteland in Acheng in 1995 by illegal means, and later occupied another one hectare.
Huang constructed a 112-square-meter housing area and a fishpond for commercial purposes without authorization, said the statement.
The land Huang lays claim to is part of a construction site belonging to the Xilin Iron and Steel Group, which legitimately obtained land use rights to a 29-hectare site that included Huang's land.
Huang was not satisfied with the 1.05 million yuan ($157,657) compensation offered by the group, instead asking for 10 million yuan ($1.5 million). Local prosecutors are looking into how Huang managed to obtain land use rights.
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