The villagers of Wukan in southern China say officials have been stealing their land for decades. So when a major deal involving yet more land was announced in September, their anger boiled over.

The villagers marched to a nearby police post and violent clashes ensued. Since then, Wukan has driven out local Communist leaders who residents say have ruled the village as despots.

Local party secretary Xue Chang, who villagers say ran the fishing and farming village as a private fiefdom for over 40 years, fled following the September protests along with other Communist officials.

For more than a week now, Wukan's 13,000 residents have been living in open revolt against officialdom, blockaded by large numbers of riot police who stand outside the village perimeter.

Following a gathering Saturday, about 6,000 villagers, including children, marched nearly up to police blockades before circling back into the village, carrying banners and shouting slogans denouncing government corruption.

The September riots followed the announcement of a lucrative housing project on more Wukan farmland. Villagers tried to block workers from the construction site, and the following day truck-loads of police arrived.

Dramatic footage seen by AFP shows police kicking and beating villagers, who fought back, driving them away.

The current stand-off was triggered when Xue Jinbo, who was elected as a community leader after the Party figures were driven out, was arrested along with four other villagers.

"We have raised the land issue for years, we have petitioned the governments in Lufeng and in (provincial capital) Guangzhou many times. They only ignore us," said a villager surnamed Zhang, 44, who told AFP his family's plot of farmland was taken from him in 1995.

"When they sold my land, I didn't get any compensation, they didn't even tell me they sold it. When I raised the issue, they told me my property deed was invalid," he said, holding up the 1953 document his grandfather handed down to him.

Xue Chang, who is believed to be in his early seventies, ran a property development company with fellow leaders, which villagers said colluded with other real estate firms to benefit from requisitioned land.

They said more than half their traditional farmlands were requisitioned for Xue's projects -- which included flooding some 46 hectares of rice paddy with salt water in a failed attempt to build a crab and shrimp farm.

"Xue Chang is a dictator who has ruled with an iron fist. He has good connections with the higher-ups," said a villager surnamed Chen.

"He has instilled fear in everyone. If you even showed dissatisfaction in front of him, he would send thugs to beat you up. That was how he was able to rule for 42 years."

Local government officials refused to discuss Xue's situation when contacted by AFP Saturday, but earlier said "a few" officials were under investigation.

Last Sunday, events took an ugly turn when Xue Jinbo -- who villagers said was not related to Xue Chang -- died in police custody.

Authorities say the 42-year-old man suffered a heart attack, while family members who saw the body said they believed he had been beaten to death.

As cordons of police and riot squads blocked the main roads in and out of Wukan this week, villagers appealed to the national government to come to their aid, saying this was their only hope.

"Premier Wen Jiabao is the only one who can solve this problem, everyone hopes he will come and resolve this," an unemployed women surnamed Lu, who said her farmland had been seized, told AFP.

"The local government is no good, they are liars and thieves. When Chairman Mao was around we were all poor but at least we could depend on our land. Now we have no land."