As a central government investigation descends, Andrea at T-Salon notes rumors that authorities in Dongzhou have been falsifying evidence as well as bribing and threatening villagers.:

Dongzhou villagers mourning in white. This is a photo that a Chinese friend has shared privately (aka in a access controlled area) over the internet.

NYT: “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.”

The most disguisting part, which was not reported in the New York Times, but elsewhere on overseas Chinese news websites, was that the authorities bombed the bodies they found and kept, so that they have “evidence” on hand to show that villagers died by explosives.

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