湖南拆庙 千名信众与百名公安冲突

信息中心表示，丁搪村庙是去年由二十七村一千名佛教信众捐钱十五万元人民币修建，可容纳一千人。由于当地很穷村民平均年收入才五百元人民币，所以建造此庙极不容易。不过，今年八月该县开展“整治非法宗教活动”，该庙被列为“非法宗教场所”要拆除，引起信众强烈反感。十月二十八日，一百名公安及县民族宗教局干部到场拆迁，但遇到上千名信众包围阻止，冲突中推土机坏掉而停止拆迁，但上周当局仍将该庙完全拆除。

信息中心又说，当局从今年八月至今，在该县关闭了三十一间庙宇，其中五间已被拆除。
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美联社：湖南拆庙警民冲突
Rights activists report clash as authorities demolish Buddhist temple in southern China

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Associated Press Writer
374 words
18 November 2003
17:47
Associated Press Newswires
English
(c) 2003. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - Police in southern China clashed with hundreds of villagers protesting the destruction of a Buddhist temple labeled an "illegal house of worship," a human rights monitoring organization reported Tuesday.

No injuries or arrests were reported in the Oct. 28 fracas in Hunan province's Longhui County, although a bulldozer being used to destroy the temple was damaged, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported. Authorities later returned to complete the destruction, the Hong Kong-based center said.

The report comes amid widespread demolition of temples and churches in several provinces as part of a campaign to rein in unauthorized religious activities.

China's communist dictatorship maintains tight controls over all religious activities, and Buddhist temples and their priests are closely monitored to ensure they profess loyalty to the Communist Party and its policies.

A Longhui county religious affairs official confirmed the demolition and said police had removed several of the temple's backers who staged a protest, but denied any large-scale clash.

Administrator Xie Yuanhua said that in December 2002, a court ordered the destruction of the temple and another one that had also been built without authorization from his department. Local officials had appealed several times to temple administrators to abandon them but were rejected, he said.

"The county government was carrying out a legal, authorized forced demolition," Xie said.

The Hong Kong center said 31 temples had been shut in Longhui, and a total of five had been destroyed.

It said the temple demolished in Longhui's Yushan township had been built at a cost of 150,000 yuan (about US$18,000) raised by donations from the residents of 27 nearby villagers in the poor inland area.

Xie confirmed the county was in the middle of a campaign to "rectify illegal religious activities," but he gave no details.

Recent large scale demolitions of unregistered religious halls have also been reported in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

During the past two years, thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns have been made homeless by the destruction of a temple complex at Serthar in the western province of Sichuan.