Grannies vow to fight on after punishment for Olympic protests

Two Beijing grandmothers remained defiant and in good spirits Friday despite being sentenced to one year of reeducation through labour for applying to protest during the Olympics.

In an interview with AFP, neighbours Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, said they had not received compensation after their homes were demolished by the city government seven years ago and were simply fighting for their rights.

"We have done nothing wrong," said Wang. "They won't let me protest, then they sentence me to a year labour camp. I am really mad.

"But we are not afraid. We will go on protesting, you can see this is not fair, do you understand that?"

The re-education orders seen by AFP said that Wang and Wu will be allowed to serve their sentences at home, but will be sent to a labour camp if they cause further trouble.

Wang and Wu were seated together in a ramshackle one-room apartment without electricity in which Wu now lives after her home in central Beijing was demolished to make way for a development.

The two said they had applied five times to stage protests at official Olympic protest zones set up by the government.

"We will keep on protesting," vowed Wang.

Ahead of the Olympics, the government said the three protests areas in city parks would be available for demonstrations. But it admitted this week that not one of more than 70 applications to protest had been approved.

Wang, who lives across a narrow unpaved lane from Wu in a similar one-room apartment in a downtrodden southeastern Beijing suburb, said they were delighted when they heard that protests would be permitted during the Olympics.

But instead of getting approval for their protest, they were both slapped with the one-year sentences of re-education through labour for disturbing public order.

"What crime have we committed?" said Wang, as the two lifetime friends let out a burst of laughter.

"We never committed any crime when we were young. Now we are so old we can't even speak clearly. How can we possible commit a crime?"

The two women described as illiterate in the police document both need walking sticks to stand up and look far too frail to challenge the authority of the all-powerful Chinese sate.

They are among hundreds of thousands of Beijing residents who have been relocated over the past decade as the city undergoes high-speed redevelopment, much of it tied to the Olympic Games.

The Beijing city government insists that residents who have been relocated have received adequate compensation. But Wang and Wu said they received nothing.

It is a familiar story in Beijing and throughout the country.

Even the central government has said the phenomenon of illegal land grabs -- where local officials and property developers kick people out of their homes or off their farms -- is one of the major factors behind rising social unrest.

The two old ladies seem to be genuinely amused that they have been branded public enemies. But they are nonetheless angry that years of effort to win compensation have so far failed.

"They say we committed a crime," said Wu. "What crime? They have the power, so what they say counts. We are just ordinary citizens and we have no voice. We are victims."

Wu's son, Li Xuehui, said that plainclohes police were camped in cars at the end of the lane watching for any further trouble from the grannies.

The women also said neighbours had been ordered to spy on them and they were constantly under watch.

But they insisted they did not care about the intimidation, and Wang said she would refuse to go to a labour camp.

"I am not going, I don't care what happens. What can they do to me?" she said.

AFP