CHENGDU: Police have identified the suicide bomber who blew himself up and
injured a judge in Guangyuan, the northernmost city in Southwest China's Sichuan
Province on Wednesday.
The bombing, which took place on Wednesday morning in an office on the fifth
floor of the 12-storey Guangyuan Intermediate People's Court, was masterminded
by 59-year-old Xia Yukai, a demobilized soldier, police sources said.
Xia was killed in the explosion, while judge Wang Youqin was injured.
Xia was from the Yangliu Village in the Shizhong District of Guangyuan and
returned to his village in 1972 after serving in the military for six years.
Initially, he took charge of security in the village. But in 1981 when the
country's household contract responsibility system came in, he bought a truck
and began transporting goods with it, accumulating considerable wealth.
In 1988, Xia invested more than 90,000 yuan (US$11,139) to launch a coal mine
in his village. He failed to find coal and ended up helping to dig coal in a
neighbouring village as a wage-earner.
Soon afterwards, Xia invested less than 10,000 yuan (US$1,238) to start
another coal mine in his village. Although he found coal this time, his sales
were stagnant.
Xia was transferring the ownership rights of the mine to another
entrepreneur, Yang, but a dispute arose between the two. Xia took the matter to
the Shizhong District Court of Guangyuan.
Xia was dissatisfied with the court's ruling and escalated the case to the
Guangyuan Intermediate People's Court.
The court asked the Shizhong District Court to retry the case, which it did
with the same ruling. Xia again took the case to the Guangyuan Intermediate
People's Court.
The Guangyuan Intermediate People's Court accepted the Shizhong District
Court's ruling.
Xia asked the Guangyuan Intermediate People's Court to retry the case, but
judge Wang Youqin declared the ruling final and said Xia could not appeal to a
higher court.
Police believe this series of events may have prompted Xia to carry out the
suicide bombing.
The police source said that Wang, a senior judge in Guangyuan, is out of
danger and the Guangyuan Intermediate People's Court has stepped up security
checks of people entering its office building.
(China Daily 04/08/2006 page2)