Police have arrested four people on charges of physically
assaulting migrant workers at a hydropower construction site in
Heyuan City, south China's Guangdong Province, according to the city
government.
The migrants, principally hailing from Chongqing Municipality and Sichuan Province, were employed at the sit on
the Dongjiang River near Heyuan City.
One of those arrested was named as Ye Dingfa, 36, head of the
Fuyuan Hydropower Development Company's security team, who was
detained along with three managers at the company's construction
site.
The workers got involved into a heated disputed with Fuyuan
Hydropower Development and contractor Qiutian Construction
Engineering Company last Friday, after having gone unpaid for four
months. The protest turned violent and eight workers are in
hospital, with one in critical condition.?
A doctor with Heyuan People's Hospital said that worker Lei
Mingzhong had suffered "brain death" and had virtually no chance of
survival.
The local government has set up a mediation team with Fuyuan
Hydropower Development Company having stated it would foot the bill
for the workers' medical costs.
Meanwhile, work on the hydropower station has ceased until all
disputes have been settled.
Finally, officials from Guangdong's department of construction
arrived in Heyuan city to lead an investigation and to console the
grieving families of the injured workers.
(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2007)