Village officials taken hostage

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)