Two missing farmers who helped organise petitions by peasants being resettled to make way for the Three Gorges Dam are believed to be in police detention. Last month He Kechang called the South China Morning Post’s Beijing office to say his colleague, Wen Dingchun, had been arrested. "More than 10 policemen went to the house of Wen and took him away. They also seized everything in his house on the instructions of the Party Secretary," said Mr He at the time. Both men come from Gaoyang township in Yunyang county, from where 13,000 villagers will be resettled. Yunyang has seen a series of protests by villagers angry at corruption they say is endemic. Mr He said he intended to travel to Beijing to petition the authorities, in particular the Three Gorges Resettlement Bureau, but apparently never reached the capital. "He Kechang has been missing for about 10 days," said a woman who answered the telephone at his home in Gaoyang township. "Mr Wen has left. All his belongings have been taken away by the police." Police contacted at Gaoyang said Mr He disappeared a month ago. "Nobody knows where he is now," a police official said. "Have you had any contact with him?" the official demanded, adding, "if He has provided any materials he sent you please fax them to me." An official with the Three Gorges Construction Committee said he had heard nothing about the men. Last October, Guo Shuyan, deputy director of the Three Gorges Project Committee, said peasants’ complaints would be properly addressed. Mr He and Mr Wen had collected thousands of petitions detailing bureaucratic corruption and protests by relocated peasants.