NPC,  CPPCC Annual Sessions 2009

    BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The three people from Xinjiang who set themselves on fire in downtown Beijing last month took the extreme action after their "unreasonable demands" were refused, the regional governor said here Friday.

    Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, said that the three, from the same family, had been involved in a dispute with the local government over home demolition to make way for a school.

    However, the family were demanding too much, including decent jobs, reimbursement of fees covering appealing visits to the government since 2002 and an open apology from the local government, although they had been fully compensated in line with regulations, the official said.

    The family including a couple, a son and a daughter. Three of them were physically or mentally disabled, said the officials, who made the remarks on the sidelines of the ongoing session of the National People's Congress (NPC), or the parliament.

    According to the local government, the family was "properly compensated" by the local government and was given a 70-square-meter suite and 400,000 yuan (58,800 U.S. dollars) in relocation fees. The daughter was given a 60-square-meter suite and 10,000-yuan medical fees.

    The three people have left Beijing for Xinjiang by plane on March 1, the mayor of Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, said. The Urumqi government paid the first-class air tickets for them.

    "They are now receiving treatment in a Urumqi hospital, in a stable condition. The local government will do its best to help them," he said.

    The couple and their son set fire to themselves inside a car on Feb. 25 at the southern end of Wangfujing avenue in downtown Beijing. The husband, 59, and the wife, 58, were badly injured and rushed to the Beijing Jishuitan Hospital that specializes in burn injuries.