At 9:00 a.m. on May 20, Tian Xiuyan, a petitioner from Liaoning Province, slit her wrists and tried to kill herself after being beaten up at the Beijing South Police Station. Police refused to send her to the hospital in time. Angry petitioners moved Tian to the Erhuan Road and protested. Over one thousand people gathered and blocked the road.
According to petitioners, 30 year old Tian from Wujia Village, Beizhen County, Liaoning Province, was beaten up by people assigned to intercept petitioners from her local governing unit. In despair, she slit her wrists and tried to kill herself.
Mr. Zhou, a petitioner from Chongqing City, said, “She bled a lot. We saw that. Many cars went by without stopping to help her. There was a police vehicle there, but it did not take her to the hospital.”
Petitioner Ms. Wang from Hebei Province said, “Her wrist was slit and bleeding. The blood got on her documents too. Somebody called 110. Many police came and the traffic was blocked for quite a long time.”
Petitioners who heard about the news were going to the streets to support their efforts and caused a traffic jam for almost one hour. At that time, there were Chinese media and overseas media coming to the scene to take photos and interview people. Many petitioners raised their materials and spoke to the media. Flyers from the petitioners were everywhere.
Later, a car from Liaoning Provincial Court came and wanted to forcibly take Tian. Petitioners gathered there requested people from the court to take her to a hospital for treatment, which was refused. Petitioners blocked the car again.
According to what Zhou said, later, a leader got out of the car and pushed away a petitioner who had a cane in hand. Petitioners became indignant, and a conflict between both sides occurred. A petitioner rushed to the leader and beat him. A few petitioners in their seventies or eighties smashed the window and front of the car with bricks.
Zhou said that at that time, there was a sea of faces on the street. About one thousand people were there. People yelled slogans including “We demand human rights. Knock down corruption.” They strongly requested the police to help Tian but was refused. When the car from the court came, the judge did not help Tian either. Later police cars came and still would not take Tian to the hospital. After about 30 minutes of protesting, the police car finally took Tian to the hospital.
Read original article in Chinese.
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