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Parents of the China earthquake victims told they can't mourn
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by Amy Judd | May 8, 2009 at 09:13 am
165 views | 13 Recommendations | 3 comments
Parents of the children that died in the China earthquake, May 12th 2008, have been told by Chinese authorities that they cannot hold memorials or morn for their deaths on that day as they risk imprisonment.
It was only yesterday that the Chinese government released the numbers of the dead, at 5,335, after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake, but there has been anger about the fact that the government has not held a formal inquiry into why the schools collapsed and why so many people died and are still missing. They are worries about protests against them on the first anniversary.
To try and avoid these protests, they have declared that if they hold memorials for their children on that day they could face jail time. Some parents have already been placed in 'black jails' for 21 days and have been threatened with longer terms if they put up a fight.
"The police visited me earlier this week and said that if we stage a memorial, then we won't just be temporarily detained, but we might go to prison for a few years," said Luo Guoming.
Mr. Luo's daughter was just 16 when she died in the earthquake at the Juyuan Middle School near Dujiangyan, but the school area is now surrounded by barbed wire and parents and journalists have been told they cannot go near it. Mr. Luo was already placed in jail for 7 days last year after he was caught traveling to Chengdu to ask why there had been no inquries made into the school collapse.
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The reason for the collapse of the schools is thought to be poor construction and building materials, and even though the government promised to hold an investigation into the deaths they have yet to do so. The govenrment claims that the earthquake was so strong and that was why the buildings fell down, however some buildings around the schools managed to stay upright while the schools collapsed.
However yesterday Liu Zuoming, the head of the Sichuan Provincial Justice Department, stated that the reason the schools fell down was due to poor construction, and this was rare breach of the government's silence on the matter.
The parents of the children say that the death toll is actually closer to 9,000, and have wondered why it took so long for the government to release the 'offcial numbers'. Foreign journalists are not allowed into the earthquake region around May 12th, and parents of the dead children have been told not to speak to them.
No one knows what is going to happen on May 12th though and how the parents are going to remember the children they lost.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (3)
at 11:18 on May 8th, 2009
RIDICULOUS
at 13:16 on May 8th, 2009
This is what happens when a government has absolute power or close to absolute power.
The government cannot stand the embarrassment of the anger of these people, many of whom, if not most, lost loved one who didn't have to die in that quake..
Why? Because the government allowed sub-standard building quality to allow the maximum of economic growth, the very thing that the left constantly accuses capitalism of doing, while their cure, socialism as state-industries, in this case, China, does the very same thing in spades.
By the way, the week of the earthquake I had a conversation with an executive at Intel. Their plant in China in the same city withstood the earthquake and was back in production in a few days.
Source: regularfolksunited.com
at 13:42 on May 8th, 2009
Yes many nearby buildings withstood the force of the earthquake, when the schools fell down, which in my opinion just says that they knew the schools weren't up to code and did nothing.
It sad that the people of China have no one to fight on their behalf and when do try to raise their voices, they are quickly silence and I'd like to think that eventually the squeaky wheel will get the grease, but who is to say that might happen there when the same thing has been happening for so long.