WUKAN, China (Reuters) ? Organizers of a Chinese village protest that tested the ruling Communist Party for more than a week decided on Wednesday to end their action after senior officials offered concessions over a land dispute and suspicious death in custody.
Residents of Wukan, in southern Guangdong province had warded off police and held protests over the death of activist Xue Jinbo, whose family rejects the government's position that he died of natural causes, and against the seizure of farmland for development.
But following conciliatory talks with provincial officials, village representatives urged the residents to pull down protest banners and go back to their normal lives -- provided the government keeps to its word.
"Because this matter has been achieved, we won't persist in making noise," village organizer, Yang Semao, told an assembly hall of village representatives and reporters, referring to the protests. He said protest banners would be taken down.
"They've agreed to our initial requests," Yang told Reuters. But he added a caveat: "If the government doesn't meet its commitments, we'll protest again."
Senior officials negotiating with the villagers agreed to release three men detained over protests in September, when a government office was trashed, and to re-examine the cause of Xue's death, a village organizer said earlier.
They and fellow villagers believe he was subjected to abuse that left injuries, including welts, on his body. But the government said an autopsy showed he died of heart problems. Xue was detained over the land protests that broke out in September.
Under a hot afternoon sun, about a thousand villagers gathered to hear another organizer, Liu Zuluan, explain the concessions from the government, which they greeted with loud clapping.
Although the Wukan rebellion was limited to one village, it has attracted widespread attention as a humbling rebuff to the ruling Communist Party, which values stability above all else.
CAUSE TO COMPLAIN
Wang Yang, the Communist Party chief of Guangdong, obliquely acknowledged that the villagers had cause to complain, in comments published on Wednesday in the Southern Daily, the official province newspaper.
"There was something accidental about the Wukan incident, but also something inevitable," Wang said, according to the report.
"This is the outcome of conflicts that accumulated over a long time in the course of economic and social development," said Wang, who is seen by many analysts as nursing hopes of a spot in China's next central leadership.
Guangdong is a prosperous part of China. But the wrenching shifts of urbanisation and industrialization have fanned discontent among increasingly assertive citizens, who often blame local officials for corruption and abuses.
On Wednesday morning, about 300 villagers had lined the sides of a road into the village, preparing to welcome, Zhu Mingguo, the main official negotiating with them.
A man holding a Chinese flag on a pole told the villagers over loudspeaker: "Everyone welcome the Communist Party's work team." Villagers unfurled a banner welcoming officials to come and help "solve the Wukan matter."
The Southern Daily also explained the concessions that Zhu has offered to the villagers, including foreswearing punishment of rioters who "show sincerity in working with the government to solve the problems."
Zhu also promised an impartial autopsy for the late Xue, and "transparent" disclosure in the media of how the villagers' grievances are addressed.
Underscoring government fears of unrest, in a separate protest on Tuesday in Haimen, a town further east up the coast from Wukan, residents demonstrated in front of government offices and blocked a highway over plans to build a power plant.
Pictures on a Chinese microblogging site, Sina's "Weibo" service, which could not be independently verified by Reuters, showed hundreds of people gathered in front of the offices as riot police kept watch.
(Writing and additional reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ken Wills, Robert Birsel and Alex Richardson)
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