(March 4, 2009) More than 2,000 people displaced by construction of the Three Gorges Dam clashed with police in central China during a protest Wednesday over missing resettlement payments, leaving 30 protesters injured, a Hong Kong-based group said.

The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement that villagers in Jiannan township of Chongqing city blocked a road and clashed with hundreds of police, overturning two police cars.

The villagers suspected officials had embezzled 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) in reimbursement owed to villagers for losing their homes to the Three Gorges Dam, the group said.

A man who answered the phone at the Jiannan public security bureau said he did not know anything about the incident.

More than 1.4 million people had to be moved to make way for the construction of the $22 billion dam, the world’s biggest hydroelectric project, completed in 2006. The dam was built to end flooding along the Yangtze River and provide a clean energy alternative to coal, but it has been riddled with problems, from resettlement to landslides.

Relocations have been plagued by reports of corruption and complaints of poor conditions for migrants in their new homes.

Jiannan township has 5,000 people who lost their homes to the dam project, the group said. They have been protesting since Feb. 28 by blocking a public road and disrupting plans for a steel plant to move into the area, the Hong Kong group said.

Associated Press, March 4, 2009