Local authorities in Hebei Province have decided to give land back to villagers after a bloody clash in Shengyou Village last month.

"To ensure the smooth operation of the Guohua Dingzhou Power Plant, the governments of Hebei Province and Baoding city announced on Wednesday they were selecting a new site to dump coal cinders of the plant," reported Xinhua.

The decision was made after a report pointed out the shortage of land versus population in the village. Police have also arrested 31 people and detained another 131 for their involvement in the clash.

"Most of the villagers are satisfied with the decision," said villager Hou Jinshui, adding: "The acreage for each person is about 0.7-0.8 mu (0.04-0.05 hectares) in the village."

There were still problems in working out what to do about the compensation that has been paid to villagers who had land requisitioned from them, he said. Four million of the 6 million yuan (US$723,000) has been distributed to the villagers since the requisition, said Hou, who now works in Beijing.

Infringements have also been found during the requisition process, said the report.

Six villagers were killed and another 48 injured in the clash on June 11, when more than 200 thugs with hunting rifles, clubs, sharpened pipes and other weapons attacked farmers living in huts on a piece of scrubland near the village, reports said.

The clash was allegedly caused by a disputed land requisition between the village and the Hebei Guohua Dingzhou Power Plant, reports said.

The power plant requisitioned 25.8 hectares of land from Shengyou in 2003, but many villagers were unhappy about the compensation offer and the dispute has been ongoing since then.

Hou said his 48-year-old cousin was killed during the clash.

All the bodies of the six villagers are still at the village committee office, he said.

"The greatest wish of the family of the victims is to find and punish the murderers," he said.

(China Daily July 22, 2005)