The nightmare traces back to 1993 when the Heze Development Zone was set up in the province's Heze City, according to a report of the China Business Herald News Weekly yesterday.

Local authorities began to collect farmland from the villagers of Duzhuang Village, where the development zone is located, the newspaper said.

By 1997, villagers handed all their farmland to the development zone, the newspaper reported.

But it was not the end. "We finally had no place to live," the Weekly quoted a villager Wang Ganyu as saying.

In 2003, authorities of the development zone forced all villagers to move out.

Many villagers thought the relocation was illegal. They refused to sign the agreement and tried to appeal to higher authorities.

But authorities of the development zone put those who went to appeal under custody to hinder their attempts.

Villagers said the development zone gave them about 2,333 yuan (US$292) for each hectare of land as compensation.

But when the development zone sold land to companies, the prices were more than double the cost of the land.

There are still more than 13 hectares of undeveloped land in the development zone. A villager said the authorities would rather leave the land idle than let the villagers re-cultivate it.

Pang Shaohai, a former development zone employee, said zone authorities used to sell and lease out dozens of hectares of farmland without government approval.