Claiming what's rightfully theirs
- Source: Global Times
- [08:20 April 26 2011]
- Comments
Neighbors break a hole through a wall around their demolished courtyard Monday to install a door that marks the place as their own. Photos: Xu Tianran/GT
By Xu Tianran
After a 19-year struggle, landowners whose property rights were ignored by authorities finally achieved a symbolic victory Monday when they installed a door in the wall surrounding their demolished courtyard along Beiheyan Dajie, in Dongcheng district.
"We are only taking back our legal belongings," said Ma Xiuming, a 78-year-old retired physics professor.
Like many intellectuals, Ma and her neighbors were forced out of their homes during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Unlike others, in the 1980s, authorities granted them certificates of ownership for both their property and the actual land as a rare gesture of conciliation.
However, Ma's home remained occupied by families who refused to leave until one day in 1992, when the former Beijing Dongcheng Housing Construction and Development Company, a State-owned enterprise (SOE), evicted the residents and knocked down Ma's courtyard without her approval.
Though armed with notarized documents and ownership certificates, Ma's numerous talks with officials and judges at different levels led nowhere.
Finally, Ma and her old neighbors decided to retrieve their property on their own, and at around 8 am Monday, workers hired by the elderly gang began drilling through the wall surrounding their demolished courtyards.
Security guards from the Beijing East China Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., the current developer of Ma's land, rushed to the scene and tried to stop the workers before police arrived.
Gao Yang, the vice director of the Jingshan Sub-district Administration of Dongcheng district, came to the scene at the repeated urging of the police. He was speechless when confronted with the elders' evidence and certificates.
Zhang Yue, general manager of Dongfangzhidi - the company that resulted from Dongcheng Housing Construction and Development's restructuring - was also called to the scene.
