China warns of Olympics unrest and sabotage

Beijing: A senior Chinese security official said the Olympics are threatened by sabotage and unrest, state media said yesterday, as authorities sacked officials after a riot in which a police headquarters was torched.

The trouble in Guizhou province in the southwest on Saturday came as China seeks to quell any signs of unrest ahead of the Beijing Games in August.

Vice Minister of Public Security Yang Huanning told police officials that the Games would be a target for forces hostile to China's ruling Communist Party. "The current international and domestic situation is full of complications," Yang told the meeting, according to the People's Public Security News. "Especially as the Beijing Olympic Games draw near, a range of anti-China forces and hostile forces are striving by any means and redoubling efforts to engage in trouble-making and sabotage."

Yang told a separate meeting to minimise the flow of aggrieved citizens journeying to Beijing to press petitions over official abuses, the China News Service reported. China has taken sweeping steps to prevent any protests or violence during the Games in August, and the restive regions of Tibet and Xinjiang have been a particular target.

Yang's warnings came as officials sought to swiftly mop up a riot in Weng'an County, Guizhou, that has underscored the currents of discontent underneath the country's dizzying growth.

Residents there torched police and government headquarters and many vehicles on Saturday, demanding justice after claims spread that police had covered up as a suicide the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl.

Police have denied that relatives of officials had anything to do with the girl's death and said she killed herself by jumping into a river. But with officials acknowledging that the anger reflected broader lapses in policing, provincial authorities announced the dismissal of Shen Guirong, the public security chief of Weng'an, and Luo Laiping, chief of the county's legal affairs committee.