Coal mine boss used thugs to spray poisonous gas on villagers

Leiyang, Hunan Province: At about 3 p.m. on the afternoon of June 10, villagers in Zhouli Village in Leiyang City, Hunan Province were sprayed with poisonous gas when villagers tried to stop a man from a neighboring village from digging coal on village land. Seven or eight women and children fainted as a result.

Xie Zhenlong is a boss of a private coal mine. He was once a Leiyang City People’s Congress representative. His older son Xie Peng is currently a member of the Hengyang City Political Consultative Conference; his second son Xie Fei was once a Hengyang People’s Congress representative. Xie Zhenlong has collaborated with his nephew Li Bi’ai to mobilize young thugs to bully common people for many years, becoming a local tyrant.

On the morning of June 10, 2014, Xie Zhenlong organized gang members to do illegal construction work on village land. Villagers organized to negotiate with Xie Zhenlong. The Leiyang City government already had agreed that Xie Zhenlong should not start working before the matter was properly handled, or villagers had the right to stop the work. Leaders from the township and village discussed the matter with Xie Zhenlong at a meeting, then said they would give villagers an answer that afternoon. After 2 p.m., when there was still no answer, villagers began to negotiate again. Xie Zhenlong threatened them. Government officials present (Chen Lieyi, party secretary of Zhouli village, Director Liu of Hongwei Company police station, and Cao Weiyang, head of Hongwei Company Security Brigade) failed to do or say anything, making Xie Zhenlong behave even worse. He threatened that he would use a bulldozer to kill whoever dared to stop him. He got on the bulldozer and started the engine. Feeling helpless, villagers used their bodies to form a wall to block him. Seeing this, Xie’s nephew mobilized more than a dozen young men and asked Xie what they should do and if he could take responsibility. Xie Zhenlong ordered them to get the villagers out of his way and that he would bear the consequences. The young men, who had knives with them, started violently attacking villagers. One of the men sprayed poisonous gas from a bottle at close range on villagers, causing more than a dozen to faint and fall to the ground with foam coming from their mouths. Some villagers recorded this with their mobile phones but were attacked by the young thugs. Two phones were smashed (as evidenced by photos taken by Director Jiang of the Xiaoshui Police Station). After that, the group of young men fled the scene, saying “Boss Xie, please honor your words to us.”

During the attack, government officials present didn’t do anything to stop Xie Zhenlong and his hired thugs. Head of Brigade Cao even interfered with villagers, enabling the criminals to flee. An hour after the attack, police vehicles from the Hongwei Company Police Station arrived. But they left as soon as they saw that the casualties were bad. It took another hour before officials from Xiaoshui Township and police station arrived (some villagers called Party Secretary Gu of Xiaoshui Township at 2:15 p.m.), but they were unable to help those villagers lying unconscious on the wet ground. In response to strong demands by the villagers, Xie Zhenlong was taken to a police vehicle. It was after 4 p.m. when Deputy Party Secretary of Leiyang City Political and Legal Committee and ambulances arrived to give injured villagers proper medical assistance.