China Stifles Complaints
Local Chinese officials are stepping up attempts to stifle complaints from parents whose children died in collapsed schools in last month's earthquake, even as authorities reiterate pledges to determine why many schools fell -- and prosecute any wrongdoing in their construction.
Officials in this wrecked coal-mining town are barring parents from traveling to see more senior officials about their complaints. Officials have prevented foreign reporters from accessing areas where schools collapsed, including this town northwest of the provincial capital Chengdu, and stopped parents from speaking with reporters elsewhere, and in some cases have threatened parents trying to voice their anger. Parents said they are frustrated with the pace of investigations into why many schools became deathtraps in the earthquake.
Parents of Xianger teenagers killed when the local middle school collapsed tried to board buses on both June 12 and June 13 to seek answers from government officials in Dujiangyan, a bigger city in the quake area. They were ordered off the vehicles by local Communist Party officials and police officers, several parents said Tuesday.
'We want an explanation,' says He Jiyun, whose 15-year-old daughter, Pan Ting, died in the Xianger Middle School. More than 300 students were killed in the school's collapse, more than triple the number killed throughout the rest of the town, residents say. The cause 'must be the building quality,' says Ms. He.
The deaths of thousands of students in what the government says was about 7,000 destroyed classrooms and dormitory rooms is proving the most politically sensitive aspect of the earthquake that hit Sichuan May 12.
China's central government promises parents will ultimately get answers, and few of them seem to doubt the sincerity of Beijing's pledge. But they are worried about the length of the process, when parents, teachers and students at several schools said there is ample evidence that shoddy construction, and sometimes corruption, were to blame.
Officials in some Sichuan schools have pledged to update parents on the investigations. Such briefings have sometimes disappointed parents because officials have used them to make offers of compensation and ask for more time -- noting the government faces a massive and complex challenge to address the needs of the millions of survivors.
'You should be confident that the provincial government will work out a plan for you and I'm sure it will be a good plan,' Deyang City Vice Mayor Zhang Jianming told parents in the town of Mianzhu on Sunday. He asked parents of students killed in Dongqi Middle School to stop gathering publicly and instead file complaints with the correct government office.
In some cases, Chinese officials have directed thinly veiled threats at parents. In a letter sent to parents of at least two Sichuan schools this month, authorities warned that foreign agents, including members of an outlawed spiritual sect called Falun Gong, are manipulating the situation to damage China's credibility and ruin the Beijing Summer Olympic Games.
'Currently a small number of people with ulterior motives, including some Falun Gong followers and some malfeasant persons from home or abroad, are attempting to use your sadness to foster a big story,' said the June 8 letter, distributed by officials to parents of victims at Dongqi Middle School. It urged them not to 'lose their wits' and offers a reminder that disturbing social order is unlawful.
Human Rights in China, an activist group based in New York, said Tuesday that late last week, authorities detained a political activist named Huang Qi, based in Chengdu, on suspicion of illegally possessing state secrets following his visits to the quake zone. In a statement, the group said it learned of the detention from Mr. Huang's relatives. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Huang said he had met with parents of Dongqi Middle School victims.
Local authorities also are reneging on Beijing's pledges that foreign journalists can freely report from affected areas of Sichuan. During the past week, police forbade a Wall Street Journal reporter from entering neighborhoods around four collapsed schools, and directed him to leave three such towns, including Xianger.
In Chengdu last week, Wang Guoqing, deputy director of China's State Council Information Office and one of the central government's top spokesmen, sought out a Journal reporter to say he was so troubled to learn journalists were being denied access that he had flown to Sichuan to help. Mr. Wang said anyone who blocked reporters didn't know the policy and promised to 'resolve it.'
Meanwhile, in the quake-hit town of Wufu, officials make daily visits to parents of students who died in the local Fuxin No. 2 Primary School to request that they stay home. Still, Xiong Yonghao, one of those visited, joins several other parents to defy the request and arrives every day at the flattened school at 8 a.m., the hour when their children used to start classes.
At the edge of the little town, banners say Wufu is in 'deep mourning.' Police block outsiders from getting near the school.
Mr. Xiong, interviewed in a car parked outside Wufu, said the parents have a simple request: 'a thorough investigation' of the school from the time it was built till today, 'and anyone who should be held responsible is held responsible.'
上訪
大陸地區指人民群眾到上級機關反映問題並要求解決的行為。
四川地震遇難學生家長上訪受阻
中
國有關部門重申將調查地震災區學校倒塌的原因﹐並追究建築過程中存在的不法行為﹐不過﹐當地政府官員仍竭力阻止遇難學生家長的上訪活動。
都江堰市向峨鄉的官員禁止學生父母向上級政府上訪。政府部門還阻止外國記者進入有校舍倒塌的地區（包括位於成都西北方向、在地震中受損嚴重的向峨鄉）﹐不讓學生家長同外地記者交談﹐有時甚至威脅那些想表達憤怒的人。這些家長表示﹐他們對學校倒塌原因調查進展遲緩非常不滿。
向峨鄉一所中學的遇難學生家長6月12日和13日兩天曾試圖乘公共汽車到所屬的都江堰市上訪。幾位父母週二表示﹐當地黨委官員和警察勒令他們下了車。
何紀雲（音）說﹐我們想得到解釋。她15歲的女兒潘婷（音）在向峨中學遇難。當地居民稱﹐該中學共有300多名學生死亡﹐是全鄉其它地方死亡總數的3倍多。何紀雲稱﹐一定是學校建築質量有問題。
政府部門稱﹐在四川5•12大地震中﹐共有約7,000間教室或和學生宿舍倒塌﹐造成數千學生遇難﹐這已成為這次地震中發生的最敏感的政治問題。
中央政府向父母們承諾最終將找出原因﹐也很少有家長懷疑北京方面承諾的嚴肅性﹐但他們對調查可能持續的時間表示擔心。有幾所學校的學生家長、教師和學生都表示﹐有充足的證據證明豆腐渣工程以及腐敗是校舍坍塌的主要原因。
James T. Areddy
照片中的近景是向峨鄉中學垮塌後的廢墟﹐而遠處
一座新建且尚未投入使用的宿舍樓卻在此次強震中
基本完好
四川一些學校的工作人員一直承諾向父母們通報調查的最新情況。但有時這類通報會卻令父母們感到失望﹐因為他們總是利用這種機會表示要提供補償﹐或是要求給他們更多時間﹐稱政府要解決數百萬倖存者的需求﹐事情複雜﹐有很大難度。
德陽市副市長張金明週日在綿竹對學生家長表示﹕大家應該相信省政府會為你們制定一個計劃﹐我相信這是一個好計劃。他要求東汽中學的遇難學生家長不要集會﹐而是向有關主管部門提交意見。
有時﹐官員們還會暗中威脅學生家長。在本月發給災區至少兩所學校學生家長的信中﹐有關部門警告說﹐包括法輪功在內的一些海外組織正在操縱事態的發展﹐妄圖損害中國的名譽﹐破壞北京奧運會。
6月8日發給東汽中學遇難學生家長的信中稱﹐目前少數有不良動機的人﹐包括法輪功分子和國內外的一些不法分子﹐正在試圖利用你們的悲傷製造更大的事端。信中敦促家長們不要失去理智﹐並提醒他們破壞社會秩序是違法行為。
總 部位於紐約的中國人權(Human Rights in China)週二表示﹐上週末﹐有關部門拘留了位於成都的政治活動人士黃琦﹐理由是他涉嫌在前往震區後非法掌握國家機密。該組織在聲明中表示﹐是從黃琦的 親屬那裡獲知這一消息的。在近日接受《華爾街日報》採訪時﹐黃琦表示他曾與東汽中學遇難學生家長會面。
當地部門並未遵守中央政府有關允許外國記者自由報導四川災區的承諾。過去一週里﹐警方禁止一名《華爾街日報》記者進入四所倒塌學校週邊地區﹐並要求他離開包括向峨鄉在內的三個鄉鎮。
上週在成都﹐國務院新聞辦公室副主任王國慶找到《華爾街日報》一位記者﹐表示他聽說記者被禁止進入一些地區後深感不安﹐因此飛赴四川提供幫助。王國慶表示﹐阻撓記者的人都屬於不瞭解政策﹐他承諾要解決這個問題。
與此同時﹐在受災嚴重的五福鎮﹐當地官員每天都走訪富新二小遇難學生的家長﹐要求他們呆在家中。不過﹐熊永豪和其他幾位家長對此並不理會﹐他們每天早上8點都會來到已被夷為平地的學校﹐這也是他們的孩子每天開始上課的時間。
五福鎮的邊緣地區掛著“深切哀悼”遇難者的標語。警方禁止外來者靠近學校。
熊永豪在停在五福鎮外面的車上接受了採訪。他說﹐家長們只有一個簡單的要求﹐就是徹底調查學校從建設到現在的情況﹐相關責任人要負擔應負的責任。
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