Posted on 06/12/2008 7:23:08 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
BEIJING: Parents who lost children in a particularly horrific school collapse during the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province scrapped their plan for a one-month mourning ceremony on Thursday after local officials warned them not to go through with it, two of the parents said.
In telephone interviews, the two parents said the group's members were told not to contact one another and not to stay in the town of Juyuan, site of the collapse of a middle school that left hundreds of children crushed to death.
Officials spoke to some parents on Wednesday night to persuade them to cancel the memorial service, said the two parents, who requested that their names not be used for fear of reprisal by the government.
On Thursday, the government used buses to take different groups of parents to different sites outside of town, the two parents said. There, the parents were given food and water.
Officials have offered the parents who lost a child the equivalent of $1,740 on behalf of the central government and $435 on behalf of the local education department, the two parents said. The parents have been told that they will get more than $4,600 in total from the central government, but that the money will be distributed in stages.
Government officials could not be reached on Thursday evening for comment.
An estimated 10,000 students died in school collapses during the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that ravaged southwest China. In late May, parents from several schools began holding vigorous protests to denounce corruption and call for investigations into the collapses. The protests spiraled into the biggest political challenge to the government in the aftermath of the earthquake.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Ah, China! Land of the Free...
The theory of Communism is pretty cool, the reality of Communism is really dreadful.
The concrete workers paradise ( “we dont need no stinking rebar”)
Seems like Yu Qiuyu is going to get a big promotion by poking suffering parents in the eye. And I'll bet the Chinese government is going to track down those bloggers that jumped all over him.
“The concrete workers paradise ( “we dont need no stinking rebar”)”
The base of the dam on the Yellow River was originally reinforced with the traditional Chinese material - straw.
Hey, I’d like to read all this but I’m off to Wally*Mart to buy a carload of Chinese crap. Maybe later.
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