"We have let one little scaly devil go back to his kind in spite of his crimes against the workers and peasants."

Talks broke down in January when the rebels accused the Government of backing the death squads' "dirty war" against peasants.

But human rights groups circulated reports that military-backed violence against peasants continued.

A muckraking best seller about abuses against Chinese peasants told the stories of farmers who fought the system and lost.

"But by all means, we should prevent this from turning against the rank-and-file citizen, the workers, peasants and intelligentsia of the party."

The use of force against workers, peasants, political activists, and minority nationalists simply intensified the incipient revolution and pushed all groups further to the left.

But outside, human rights advocates circulated reports that military-backed violence against peasants was continuing.

When they saw it as magic against magic rather than peasants against knights, the opposition melted away.

It was proclaimed against peasants who refused to pay tithes to the Archbishop of Bremen.

In 1931, the Kalashnikovs were stripped of their property as the country was swept by the repressive campaign against well-off peasants.