Clashes as dam money goes missing

BEIJING - More than 2000 people displaced by construction of the Three Gorges Dam have clashed with police in central China during a protest over missing resettlement payments, leaving 30 protesters injured, a Hong Kong-based group said.

The Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said villagers in Jiannan township of Chongqing city blocked a road and clashed with hundreds of police, overturning two police cars.

The villagers suspected officials had embezzled 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) in reimbursement owed to villagers for losing their homes to the Three Gorges Dam, the group said.

A man who answered the phone at the Jiannan public security bureau said he did not know anything about the incident.

More than 1.4 million people had to be moved to make way for the construction of the $22 billion dam, the world's biggest hydroelectric project, completed in 2006.

The dam was built to end flooding along the Yangtze River and provide a clean energy alternative to coal, but it has been riddled with problems, from resettlement to landslides.

- AP

All Access. All in one subscription. From $2 per week

Subscribe now

All Access Weekly

From $2 per week

Pay just

$15.75

$2

per week ongoing

Subscribe now

BEST VALUE

All Access Annual

Pay just

$449

$49

per year ongoing

Subscribe now

Learn more

30