For all the improvements China has made since its economic reforms started more than a quarter century ago, there is still a dark side of naked authoritarian rule.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of China sent out a circular Monday on behalf of the BBC, which contained a 2,400-word document by journalist Bessie Du describing the worsening situation in Shengyou, an embattled hamlet about 70 miles from Beijing.

The BBC account reveals the desperation of Shengyou villagers and includes sordid details on the detention, rough handling and strip-search ordeal Du, her cameraman and driver went through before their release. She told United Press International the experience was unpleasant, but neither she nor any of her colleagues suffered permanent injury.

Last Wednesday, a BBC TV crew traveled to Shengyou to interview a local resident who lost his father during a land protest last month. Farmers in the rural community had been assailed by approximately 250 men armed with hunting rifles, pipes sharpened into spears, clubs and Molotov cocktails. The assault left at least six dead and around 150 wounded.

Last week, state-run media announced the arrest of 106 suspects. Investigators allege the attack was the work of two contractors hired by the Hebei Guohua Power Co. to remove villagers camped on 64 acres of farmland to prevent its destruction.

Shengyou residents have refused to accept compensation from the state-owned company, which has been trying since 2003 to build a hydropower plant on 116 hectares of land occupied by 13 villages. Shengyou is the last place still offering resistance.

Journalists are barred from entering Dingzhou, the city with administrative responsibility over the embattled hamlet. The city's mayor and Communist Party chief were among five current and former party officials purged or dismissed from their posts after the riot. State media said they were removed for violating "economic and financial discipline" with regard to land-requisition procedures.

The new replacement apparatchiks are detaining reporters and keeping them in a Dingzhou hotel, according to the BBC. In an effort to evade the officials, the BBC crew changed vehicles, skirting south of Dingzhou to nearby Xinle, arriving at a meeting point several miles outside the small city after 1 a.m. Thursday. After about 40 minutes, Shengyou villagers showed up on a motorbike and a three-wheel tractor, Du said. Armed with knives and spears, they took the BBC crew on a back-road journey to the village in a bid to elude detection.

The journalists were led to a yard where Shengyou's village chiefs had offices. Bodies of the six farmers killed in last month's attack were kept in freezers, each housed in a separate room containing a shrine with a photo of the dead plus traditional food and incense offerings. Families and relatives guarded the remains 24 hours a day. Others guarded doorways and rooftops.

Villagers urged the BBC to start filming immediately because, they said, paid government informants would report to the authorities as soon as the news crew was detected. Du said villagers told them to leave as soon as possible.

The BBC correspondent said the situation in Shengyou was far worse than what had been reported in the Chinese and Western media. Villagers said the government had done nothing to redress their demands, aside from paying for the freezers.

Residents said the local government sealed off the village, afraid villagers would protest or file petitions. Authorities threatened to take the bodies away. Shengyou villagers have vowed to bury the remains only when the government catches and punishes all those responsible and explains the law enabling land to be seized.

Villagers were ready for government forces to intervene at any moment and were prepared to fight again. Locals said they had already lost lives and if they gave in, the lives would have been lost in vain.

The BBC crew slipped out of the village but was detained at 10 a.m. Thursday as they approached a highway tollgate on the Hebei-Beijing boundary. Authorities from the Zhouzhou police on the Hebei side of the border separated the reporter and her cameraman, dragging them into separate vehicles.

The news crew managed to inform colleague Rupert Wingfield-Hayes by cell phone in Beijing of their detention. They, in turn, informed the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the embassies (United States and Japan) of the two correspondents' countries. Shortly before 1 p.m., the two journalists and their driver were taken to the Zhouzhou Public Security Bureau.

Wingfield-Hayes praised the U.S. Embassy's willingness to protect Du, a U.S. citizen. He told UPI the British Embassy was "useless," saying it was not interested in the incident.

The veneer of civility accompanying most detentions was stripped away once the reporters refused to sign a document saying that according to Chinese criminal law, they were to be interrogated by Zhouzhou police. Du's mobile phone was wrenched from her hand, she said. She said one policewoman twisted her arm while the other grabbed her bag and pulled it forcefully away.

The reporter, cameraman and driver were strip-searched in separate interrogation chambers. At about 4:30 p.m., authorities "completed their procedure" and the TV crew was free to leave. Despite the search and interrogation, BBC managed to hide the footage from authorities.

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