Five local government officials in central China's Hunan Province have been punished for their abuse of power in the illegal eviction of local residents.

Jiahe County Party Committee Secretary Zhou Yuwa and County Magistrate Li Shidong have been removed from their posts, while three other leading county officials were seriously reprimanded.

They are accused of forcibly removing the residents of 11 local households in order to make way for commercial real estate development. A judicial investigation has started and the suspected lawbreakers will have to face these proceedings.

The eviction of the residents was the result of a deal between the local government and a property developer, in which the land was sold for only 1.3 per cent of its market value, China Central Television reported.

The officials were punished after the Ministry of Construction sent an investigation team to the county - working jointly with the Hunan provincial government - following growing complaints from local people.

Three local residents, who were illegally jailed for refusing to move out of their homes, have been compensated by the local government.

Premier Wen Jiabao expressed serious concern over the issue and urged officials to prevent this from happening again.

A State Council meeting was held on Friday to discuss resettlement management in urban and township construction.

Wen noted at the meeting that supervision must be intensified in order to better safeguard people's rights and interests.

In another case, four leading local government officials in Zhouzhi County of northwestern China's Shaanxi Province were also punished for abuses of power in land acquisitions.

The county government signed an agreement in December 2002 to sell 400 hectares of land to a real estate developer without the deal being approved by related departments and forcibly removing local residents from their homes.

In the past two years, the local government undertook many illegal land acquisitions, causing mounting protests from local people.

Following an investigation into the issue, the Shaanxi provincial government ordered related local departments to return the illegally acquired land or pay compensations to affected residents.

The Ministry of Land Resources stressed that more efforts will be made to investigate and handle illegal land acquisition cases to safeguard residents' interests.

(China Daily June 5, 2004)