Situation tense after family planning riots in China

Seven towns in the Guangxi region erupted in violence amid tensions over fines and other punishments imposed for having too many children, Xinhua news agency said in the first official account of the unrest that began last Friday.

As many as 3,000 people protested in various villages in Guangxi region, Xinhua said, adding that government offices had been destroyed and cars and motorcycles burnt.

Residents contacted by AFP said tens of thousands of people were involved in the rioting, the worst of which took place on Friday and Saturday, while Hong Kong press reports have put the figure at 50,000.

Locals said the unrest had also spread in varying degrees to many other towns, where government work teams had ransacked homes and confiscated property from families unable to pay fines for violating family planning policies.

Residents also reported authorities forcing pregnant women to have late-term abortions, a dark practice that has been common throughout China's so-called "one-child" programme since it was first implemented in the late 1970s.

"There may be problems with the family planning work of the government, which have prompted complaints from residents," Xinhua quoted Huang Shaoming, head of Bobai county where much of the rioting took place, as saying.

But authorities mentioned only that the protesters were in line for punishment.

Police detained 28 people suspected of instigating the attacks, Xinhua said, citing the local government, without giving any indication of officials being reprimanded.

"The farmers are weeping day by day as this tragedy has unfolded -- all the people here are living under a cloud of terrorism," Nong Sheng, a resident of Dukang township, told AFP.

"We not only have no human rights, but they have taken away our right of survival and our property rights."

A woman surnamed Long from Bobai said forced abortions had been stepped up dramatically as part of the campaign, which began last month.

"Family planning policies have been enforced very strictly recently," Long told AFP by telephone.

"If a woman has more than one child, no matter how many months pregnant she is, they have forced her to have an abortion."

Residents said local governments last month began dispatching "family planning work teams" to levy fines of between 6,000 yuan (780 dollars) and 60,000 yuan.

The work teams also confiscated personal possessions including livestock and electronic equipment from families who could not pay.

"Every day there are villagers going to the government demanding the return of things taken from them," a woman in nearby Shuangwang township told AFP by phone following protests there on Tuesday.

The woman, who refused to give her name for fear of retribution, said fines were even being levied on families who failed to get birth permits before they became pregnant, echoing many such accusations in Internet chatrooms.

Photos initially posted on the Internet also showed government work teams dressed in military fatigues and wielding sledgehammers, smashing the homes of those who could not pay.

Xinhua said a team of 4,200 officials had been sent to 28 towns to meet residents and "deal with their complaints."

Under the population control policies, China's urban dwellers are in general allowed to have one child, while rural families can have two if the first child is a girl.