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BEIJING : Authorities Friday sacked top local Communist Party officials and a police chief over an inquiry in the death of a schoolgirl which triggered massive riots in southwest China, state media reported.
Wang Qin, the top Communist Party official in Weng'an county, Guizhou province where the riots occurred on Saturday, and Wang Haiping, the head of the county government, were sacked, Xinhua news agency said.
County police chief Shen Guirong, whose inquiry into the alleged rape and murder of the schoolgirl triggered the riots, was also sacked, state media reported earlier Friday.
The riots involving 30,000 people saw government buildings torched and ransacked and numerous police vehicles set alight after local police declared the apparent drowning death of the 17-year-old girl to be suicide.
Protesters alleged the girl, Li Shufen, was raped and murdered by the son of a local official who had been exonerated in a police cover-up, an allegation dismissed by police.
The firings marked a rare instance in which the government admitted official culpability in an outburst of unrest, which China normally blames squarely on "criminal" rioters seeking to upset social stability.
The beating of the girl's uncle by unknown assailants after he confronted the police over the death also helped stoke the protests, especially after rumours circulated, falsely, that he had died from his wounds.
Xinhua quoted Guizhou Communist Party vice chief Wang Fuyu as saying the riots could have been avoided if Weng'an officials "communicated appropriately with the aggrieved people" at the first sign of public anger.
Local authorities also had adopted "rude and rough-shod solutions" to various public disputes over demolition of homes for government projects, relocation of residents to make way for reservoirs, and other issues, the report quoted provincial party chief Shi Zongyuan as saying.
The violent protests were a major embarrassment for China's Communist Party rulers, who have been trying to showcase the nation as harmonious and stable ahead of next month's Beijing Olympics.
Xinhua on Tuesday cited officials saying Li's case would be reopened in acknowledgement of public anger over the inquiry's handling. But a day later officials were quoted as saying the case was basically closed and that none of the public allegations in the crime was true.
- AFP /ls
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