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Autopsy reconfirms police findings that Chinese girl drowned

A third autopsy on a teenage girl whose death sparked a riot last weekend in southwest China confirmed she died of drowning, state media reported yesterday.

The result confirmed initial police findings on high school student Li Shufen that had angered locals who believe she was raped and murdered, perhaps by children of local officials.

In response, 30,000 people rampaged through Wengan last Saturday, torching cars and the police headquarters in the town in hilly Guizhou Province.

AUTOPSY

The autopsy on Li before she was buried confirmed she was not the victim of a sexual attack, Xinhua News Agency said, citing the provincial Communist Party secretary.

In an interview with the China Daily newspaper published yesterday, the father and brother of the girl said they did not agree with the view of the police that she was unhappy and killed herself.

Li Shuyong, the brother, said he didn’t know the two men the girl was last seen with, and was expecting a “different result” from the latest autopsy.

Police have not made the three people Li was last with — a classmate surnamed Wang and two young men — available for interviews, the newspaper said.

The autopsy was carried out by five experts from the Guizhou public security department and the Higher People’s Court, Xinhua said.

Xinhua said the local police chief and another police official have been replaced for neglecting their roles during the riot.

County public security bureau director Shen Guirong and political commissar Luo Laiping were replaced for “serious negligence,” Xinhua said.

It did not give details.

China has stepped up security across the country to maintain stability ahead of the Olympic Games, and puts the responsibility for law and order on local officials.

SECURITY

Police detained 59 people for their alleged roles in the violence, in which 30,000 rioters torched the police station and county government building, prompting officials to flood the streets with security.

Sixteen people are still in detention, Xinhua said.

Provincial party boss Shi Zongyuan, who visited the county earlier this week, said local officials had neglected their duties and let crime run rampant.

Officials’ “rude and rough-handed solutions” in dealing with disputes, such as the demolition of homes and relocation of residents to build reservoirs, had been one of the main reasons behind the riot, Shi said.
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