Village officials taken hostage

PURWOKERTO, Central Java: Hundreds of residents of Karang Gintung village in Sumbang subdistrict, Banyumas, kept their village chief and 18 other officials hostage for 24 hours and released them only after they agreed to resign.

Village chief Sutiyasno and the other officials were kept in the village hall and made to answer a barrage of questions about alleged corruption.

"We have all agreed that we want only clean officials," said Tato, 32, a villager.

The incident began at 9 a.m. on Monday and ended 24 hours later. Worried wives of the captive officials urged their menfolk to resign when they took meals to the hall for them to stop them getting hungry. (45)