From Human Rights Watch (link):
China is attempting to lay to rest without investigation the most serious governmental assault on public protesters since the Tiananmen massacre, Human Rights Watch said today. In the absence of public disclosure about the role of officials in the deaths of at least three protestors in Dongzhou in December 2005, the sentencing of villagers involved in the protests undermines confidence in the impartiality of the Chinese legal system.
Thirteen Chinese villagers were sentenced on May 24 to prison for up to seven years for illegal assembly, disturbing social order, and illegal possession of explosives after taking part in protests in December 2005. At that time, the Chinese government acknowledged that, “policemen accidentally killed and injured protestors,” and in May it issued “serious warnings” to some officials. But there have been no public reports of a transparent investigation into the incident itself, the role of officials, or the actual death toll, or whether steps are being taken to prevent a similar use of deadly force in the future. The government simply claims that “the relevant people have already been gravely disciplined.”
