Sichuan China Earthquake One Year Anniversary: Regaining Ground

Some parents said that they will stand in silent protest as President Hu Jintao and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon take part in a ceremony commemorating the deaths of 1,400 high school students in the city of Beichuan.

Recently provincial construction director Yang Hongbo said there was limited evidence of poor construction.

However, the authorities insisted that the power of the quake was to blame for the scale of human losses, this despite the fact that China’s National Audit Office determined that schools were forced to operate on 55 per cent of their budget with the rest embezzled.

Parents are warning that they are not going to give up or accept compromises. Many of them lost their only child and are now set to dedicate the rest of their life to justice.

“I feel I have no future, nothing,” said Lin Changhen who lost her only daughter.

For her the 60,000 yuan the government gave her in compensation is “dirty.”

“We don't necessarily want compensation or trials, but we want a fair, just answer,” said Zheng Chenglong, whose son Zheng Jiajie died in a collapsed school.

One year on, some parents who lost their children are speaking out against what they say is a government cover-up of the shoddy construction of schools.

Parents have claimed that corrupt officials or contractors had used sub-standard building materials.

Some parents have told Western journalists authorities have previously stopped them from going to the schools to commemorate their dead children, and fear they won't be able to do so on May 12, the first anniversary.

Last week Hou Xiongfei, the vice head of propaganda of Sichuan province, accused Western journalists of seeking to incite quake victims into anti-government protests.

Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Prime Minister, who flew to the earthquake zone within hours of it happening, has ordered the resettlement to be completed within two years.

Each family is entitled to 15,000 yuan from the Red Cross, 16,000 yuan in Government aid and low-interest bank loans. Chinese banks have given loans totalling £19.8 billion to help with rebuilding.

Built in long rows, the prefabricated huts are identical: 40 sq ft grey boxes, their edges trimmed in blue, with a solitary window punched in the wall. The sides are made from two sheets of aluminium with a polystyrene core for insulation. Inside, there is a single lightbulb, but no heating at all, because of the fire risk. Baking hot in summer, the huts froze in the winter as condensation turned to ice.

Some of the quake victims refused to move to the temporary camps so that they could stay close to their farms, their only source of income. The people who have made the move say they are happy to be safe. Many have brought what they could salvage to their new homes. Meals are cooked outside, in the corridors between huts, and often shared with neighbours.

The Chinese government has set a target that everyone should have started building their own homes by the anniversary of the quake, but few have managed to find the resources. The price of bricks, cement and steel has inflated rapidly, and the average cost of a home is now about 80,000 yuan (£8,000). The government compensation to victims ranges between 16,000 and 23,000 yuan per family, and the process of winning compensation for their collapsed homes has been long and bureaucratic. Each home has had to be inspected by an official to check that it is uninhabitable.

The government plans to start shutting down the temporary camps this coming August, although many charities believe that victims will still be in the camps several years from now.