protest - Dongzhou officials try to change bullets into bombs

An amazing account in the New York Times that tells how Dongzhou official try to convince their villagers that the death and wounded of December 6 have died from self-made bombs in stead of official bullets. Who follow the newly-invented official story can get money, the others risk a beating.

"Local officials are talking to families that had relatives killed in the incident, telling them that if they tell higher officials and outsiders that they died by accident, by explosives, while confronting the police, they must make it sound convincing," said one resident of the besieged town in an interview. "If the family members speak this way they are being promised 50,000 yuan ($6,193), and if not, they will be beaten and get nothing out of it."

Another villager, who, like other residents, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear or reprisals, said families of the dead who agreed to invoke accidental explosion as the cause of death had been offered $15,000 each.