China to release protest leaders

Chinese authorities have agreed to release three villagers detained for leading September protests against land grabs, a community spokesman said Wednesday after meeting a senior official. "The three will be released one after another today and tomorrow," Lin Zulian told residents of the southern village of Wukan, after talks aimed at defusing a long stand-off with local authorities. The local government also agreed to release the body of Xue Jinbo, a protest leader who died in police custody and who villagers believe was beaten to death, "in due course", but did not say when, Lin told the villagers. "I'm very satisfied with the outcome of the meeting," he said. "This is not a victory, but it is a beginning." The 13,000 residents of Wukan, a fishing village in the wealthy southern province of Guangdong, have effectively been governing themselves since late September, when they chased out local Communist leaders who they say had been stealing their land for years. The villagers' anger boiled over this month when five villagers were detained for their involvement in September clashes with police and one died in custody. They had planned to leave the village and march on local government headquarters in the nearby town of Lufeng on Wednesday to press their demands. But villagers postponed the protest after deputy provincial party secretary Zhu Mingguo said in a televised speech that their demands were "reasonable", admitted the government had made mistakes, and agreed to meet their unofficial spokesman, Lin. The government has also lifted police checkpoints that have surrounded Wukan for more than a week. Lin said the issue of stolen land had yet to be resolved, although Zhu has promised the villagers will be compensated.