CHINA:CHINA HAS dispatched a team of state prosecutors to take part in the official inquiry into the shoddily built schools that collapsed during the Sichuan earthquake last month, a move aimed at appeasing public anger about possible corruption links to the poor construction of some of the schools.
All over the earthquake zone, devastated parents complain that a disproportionate number of children died in the May 12th quake because of what they claim is local corruption and poor application of building regulations. The earthquake killed nearly 70,000 people, with many thousands more missing, presumed dead; at least 9,000 of them were schoolchildren.
Anguished parents want answers. Visiting these schools in the past few weeks, there has been little evidence that they were particularly well-made - little structural steelwork in evidence and the cement crumbled to dust in the hand.
In Shifang, a rural area badly affected by the quake and where schools collapsed at Hongbai, Yinhua, Luoshui and other towns, the procuratorate, or prosecutor, will seek to ensure investigations into the sensitive school issue are done fairly, the Legal Daily reported.
Last week, People's Armed Police units moved to quell gatherings of grieving parents and protests by families seeking legal redress.
However, the Legal Daily article shows how authorities in towns such as Shifang are anxious to ease fears the probe will be impartial. The Legal Daily said some parents did not think they would get a fair hearing.
The prosecutors will examine the quality of construction in 10 collapsed schools and prepare possible criminal examinations over negligence of poor workmanship. The investigators were obtaining geological reports, plans and documents on building and inspections and taking samples of steel, concrete and bricks.
"The involvement of the anti-corruption bureau has pacified some parents," Hu Hong, an anti-corruption official at Shifang, said. "Since our department has examined first-hand information about the collapsed schools, we have prepared for the next step which is timely investigation of poor workmanship."
The latest post-quake reverberations to blast the region are landslides. Authorities began moving thousands of quake victims threatened by the threat of new landslides caused by torrential rain in the area.
State television news reported that up to 70,000 people in Wenchuan county, the site of the quake epicentre, had to move to avoid possible landslides and mudslides caused by rain lashing shaken hillsides.
Natural disasters seem to be lining up this year in China. While the southwest of the country is still dealing with the earthquake, the south is now facing serious flooding after the biggest storms for years swell the 5,500-km Yellow River, China's second longest river. Floods have killed 57 people and forced 1.27 million to move to safer ground.
The flooding situation has not stabilised yet. Overflowing rivers is a feature of the summer in China, but the country may have worse to come. The national meteorological service has warned that the Yellow River flowing through the north may also see "quite large" floods this year.
Fresh storms could lash parts of the Yangtze River delta, a major manufacturing centre near Shanghai, and parts of provinces across the east, south and southwest, including economic powerhouse Guangdong.
Separately, human rights groups have expressed concern about Huang Qi, an activist who runs a website in Chengdu that is critical of the government.