Villagers held after China land protest-witnesses

HONG KONG, Jan 18 (Reuters) Police clashed with dozens of villagers in southern China today as they broke up a protest over a land dispute and detained about nine people, witnesses said.

China has been beset by a surge in public order disturbances and social unrest after three decades of market reforms that have lifted living standards but also widened the wealth gap. Official figures show the number of mass incidents in China rose to 74,000 in 2004 from about 10,000 in 1994.

''Hundreds of police'' clashed with villagers wielding wooden sticks as they tried to force them from a plot of land the villagers said was taken by the government without proper compensation, villager Chen Weiying told Reuters by mobile phone from Sanshan village in Guangdong province.

For the past week and a half, a group of around 30 villagers had occupied and slept on the plot of land to prevent developers from starting piling work for a new development, risking attacks from hired thugs, Chen said.

The villagers had been angered over the sale of the land by local authorities for which they were compensated just 15 percent of what they considered a fair price, said another villager, who declined to give his name for fear of reprisals.

''They accused us of disturbing public order,'' said a third villager who would only give his surname as Law.

Dozens of police vehicles converged on the scene, including ambulances and fire engines, and road blocks were set up, Law said.

An official at the Sanshan police station said he had heard nothing about the incident.

In December, Radio Free Asia reported that eight villagers from Sanshan had been detained on alleged blackmail charges, after protesting against the seizure of a block of land.

Witnesses said the two incidents were not linked.

REUTERS SP KP1236