Three elderly Hainan residents protest government use of land

What’s interesting about this is that their land was taken and used for a police sub-station (pai chu suo), but that was not something recent, but rather happened way back in 1974. They felt they were shafted then, and kept apply for some kind of hearing on the matter of this land but to no avail. On June 6, 2008 the government rejected another appeal from Lin Hongqi, one of the elderly protesters, saying that her papers and materials were not acceptable. By law there is a 60 day period in which the applicant can appeal for a second hearing. However, before the 60 days was even close to being up, the gov’t decided to unequivocally give the land-use rights to the police, who planned on constructing a larger building on the same site. Driven to desperation these elderly protesters felt they had nothing left to lose, and so lay down on the ground as a form of protest.

据一位其称为土地产权所有人之一的林树芬亲属林鸿祺介绍，他们全家几辈已在海口市博爱南横路12号居住了60多年。该宅地为祖上林天就于1948年8月置下并具有当时合法的土地所有权证。解放后该宅地也没有被政府没收或征用，土地所有权一直由其家所拥有。1957年3月26、27和28日，林家曾连续3天在《新海南日报》刊登海口市民政局公告，重新确定了土地所有权。1974年8月16日海口市公安局博爱派出所（原为海口市红坎坡派出所）在未与林家及其他拥有该地土地合法产权人办理任何手续、也未作任何补偿的情况下，强行拆除该地上的草房和基础庭院，建起了派出所办公用房（即海口市公安局博爱派出所所在地）。多年来，林树芬等人多次口头和书面向省市有关部门反映申诉土地所有权的问题，一直未能解决。