Three people from the southern Chinese village of Wukan in Guangdong province who had been detained for alleged vandalism in recent protests against land use and other issues have been released on bail, local police said Friday.

Residents of Wukan village have called off protests over a land dispute and a suspicious death after senior officials promised to meet their demands and said no one would be arrested.

Yesterday, they took down protest banners and canceled plans for a march to government offices after officials agreed to release four detained villagers and to re-examine Xue Jinbo's death.

Guangdong's Deputy Communist Party Secretary Zhu Mingguo told protest leader Yang Semao and another village representative yesterday that the government would buy back 27 hectares of farmland that had been sold to a developer and return it to the villagers, according the Shanwei City government's official website.

Zhu told villagers at a meeting on Tuesday that their aggressive behavior in the protests was "understandable and forgivable" and the police and government would not arrest any of them or hold them responsible for riots, according to Shanghai Daily report.

Villagers who had taken part in damaging public property would be forgiven if they repented their behavior, said Zhu.

He called the protesters' demands "legal and reasonable" and said investigations would be carried out into village officials and illegal land seizures to restore Wukan's social order.

(Xinhua contributed to the story)

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