Rights group condemns China's jailing of protesters

BEIJING, June 1 (Reuters) A U S-based rights group today condemned China's closed-door conviction and jailing of 13 villagers for their roles in a protest that was quelled with riot police opening fire.

At least three people died and eight were wounded in Dongzhou, a village in the southern province of Guangdong, in December when police shot residents protesting against a lack of compensation for land lost to a wind power plant.

It was the most violent in a series of recent protests around the country being fuelled by a growing gap between rich and poor, corruption and disputes over land rights.

Human Rights Watch said 13 villagers were jailed for up to seven years for illegal assembly, disturbing social order and illegal possession of explosives.

''In the absence of public disclosure about the role of officials in the deaths of at least three protesters in Dongzhou in December 2005, the sentencing of villagers involved in the protests undermines confidence in the impartiality of the Chinese legal system,'' it said in a statement.

City officials were also disciplined and a deputy police chief sacked and placed under ''criminal detention'', state media has said, for their roles in the unrest in which residents say as many as 20 villagers may have died.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International described the Dongzhou violence the most serious government assault on protesters since the military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989, the anniversary of which falls on Sunday.

The government has resisted calls to change its verdict on that movement as ''counter-revolutionary'' and hold open inquiries into what happened.

Human Rights Watch said the Dongzhou incident also deserved a public investigation.

''When protesters are held incommunicado and convicted in a closed trial but officials get a slap on the wrist, there is hardly a pretense of legality,'' its Asia director, Brad Adams, said in the statement.

''The events in Dongzhou merit serious public scrutiny.'' REUTERS AD VC1115