Strange

Cemetery officials illegally exhuming bodies in Hong Kong

by Tina Kells | September 2, 2008 at 10:32 am

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China's anti-corruption body announced today that 18 senior cemetery officials in Hong Kong have been caught accepting bribes to prematurely exhume partially decomposed bodies from temporary graves in government-run cemeteries.

"ICAC enquiries revealed that the arrested serving and former staff of Board of Management of the Chinese Permanent Cemeteries had allegedly conspired together to solicit and accept monetary advantages from a number of tombstone contractors and funeral agents," it said.

"In return, the BMCPC staff were alleged to have allowed exhumation to continue improperly despite the fact that the human remains of the deceased were not fully decomposed."

Overcrowding in Chinese cemeteries has caused the government to devise a rather unique burial system. People in China lease plots for deceased loved ones for a period of 10 years, after which time the body is exhumed and cremated, or reburied in a smaller grave. Under Chinese law only fully decomposed bodies can be exhumed.

Cremation is unpopular in Chinese culture and burial plots are at a premium. With the largest population in the world, land in China is scarce and the government has had to limit the amount of land used for cemeteries. The 18 cemetery officials charged today were digging up bodies to allow for a faster turn over of the public graves.

But the ICAC investigation - codenamed "Mid-Summer Night" - found this rule was being ignored if bribes were paid, so the sought-after plots could be cleared and re-leased.

In some cases, the supervisors were also alleged to have brought forward the date for exhumation in return for cash, the ICAC said.

An anonymous source told the South China Morning news that tombstone contractors offered substantial cash bribes to the 18 officials in question. The problem began two years ago and the corrupt officials have been under investigation by Hong Kong's anti-corruption task force for months.

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