Dead children demand justice, Natural or man-made disaster?

At 16:00, May 29, a banner was stuck into of a primary schools debris in Luoshui, Shenfang. On the white banner, eight black characters says “Dead children demand justice”

Around the school debris stands a group of parent who lost their children in the earthquake. Mothers lost control when they reached the scene, “Newspaper reported only 80 student deaths in the school, but where on earth are other 200 lost children?” “I have not found my child now. Where is he! I even have not seen his body yet.” Another mother added, “My father joined the construction work of this school. He said construction company was a total jerry builder and cheated much on the quality and quality of material used. My father said the children would die of the poor-quality building one day.”

Some parents grab cement blocks from the debris. Under a slight pinch, cement blocks turned into sands and slides off their fingers. Another father picked a length of perimeter beam in the debris and said, “The bar diameter of this beam steel is just 6mm, just a little wider than steel wire.” He said he is a construction worker, and according to construction regulations, steel used for perimeter beam should be threaded steel with a bar diameter of 30mm. One wall of the school collapsed and killed five children. Parents lead the reporter to the wall and found that it is hollow inside! Some parents told me the school is constructed by the brother-in-law of an official in Shifang Education Committee, so is another primary school in the same town, which also collapsed and killed more than 300 students according to official report.
According to Sichuan Administration of Education on May 26, the earthquake killed 4737 students and 1,6000 were injured. In the 67,000 people died in this earthquake, students count for 7%. Till May 29, no new figure on student death is released. Yang Lin, 14, a junior two student in Juyuan Middle school is a lucky survivor. Her little brother is grade one in the same school. Her dad died when she was 5 and her mother worked in a northern city far way Sichuan to support the family. The mother has been sick for heavy work.. The two children lived with their grandparent, 66 and 63 years old respectively.

Yang Lin’s class is on the top floor, third floor. She said did not realize what happened when the building started to shook. she just heard terrified screams are all around her. She stayed calm and wanted to figure out what happened but suddenly she dropped from the first row to the last row and then dropped again with the third floor. She did not hurt much at first, but shortly after, structures around here collapsed the second time. She was hit on the hips and pressed heavily. Beside her there were several boy also buried.

During she was buried there, she heard parents pass by searching for their child, but they left her when they found she is not their child. When the same thing happened twice, she stopped calling for help. One of her arm was able to move. She grabbed a brick and hit herself on the head. A boy pressed beside her asked her not to do stupid thing. She said just want to be faint so that she would not feel so bad.

One boy in their group finally heard his parents’ call and was rescued out. When the boy left, he and his parents told her they would ask others to help her. But no one came to her for a long time. She was forgotten again.

When she was waiting for rescue, she groped a shoe and then a cold leg. She guessed it is the fat girl in her class. She quitted waiting for rescue then and decided to rescue herself. She tried to crawl out of the cement and glass debris.

Finally she made it and found it is still daytime outside. She saw a small flower garden in front of her. She felt rather surprised for the garden was at the ground floor and how come she could reach the ground without walking downstairs. Then a person in red clothes carried her on the back and later she saw her teacher, who had asked her to recite a poem that day, rushed to hug her and said, “I had asked you to run away!” She answered in mind, “I did not hear you, I was busying reciting English text.”

Then she was left on the ground and waited for being sending to hospital. Students besides her told her not to cry, but she said she did not. She actually was laughing. When she was told her grandparents was looking for here. She cried.

Hospitals in Dujiangyan City was not able to accept any patients. Yang Lin was sent to Chendu, capital of Sichuan. In the hospital, halls and stairs were crowded with injured people. Among them, there is a junior two students. He had no idea where his parents were and his left leg has already cut off.
Luckily, Yang Lin did not break her bones seriously. Her grandmother 63, was taking care of her and her mother had not come back yet. She could not sit nor have stand and she to receive catheterization. The girl can not bear it. She said she regret having crawled out.

Her words were surely a pessimistic expression at that moment. Most of the time, the little girl was prospecting the future. She wondered whether her school would start class again. She said if she can not pass the entrance examination for high school, she did not want to stay in the school any more. She would go out to search for a job to support the family.

When Yanglin was sent to hospital, in her school, Juyuan Middle School, parents’ rescue job continued. When night came, it started to rain and roads are in muddle. When rescue teams came, Parents were kept from the debris with some policeman around to keep them in order. There is a door on the ground. Whenever policeman rush to the debris with the door, parents would followed them immediately, for it means another living student are found. On the playground, small dead bodies are lying in a line. Firecrackers were lighted whenever a dead body was taken out. Sound of rain drops, parents’ cries and firecrackers knotted together in the middle school.

Rescue teams kept digging until 14th morning when the school started to give off strong rotten smell. Rescue teams told parents no living students can be found and an excavator was used to clear the debris. Seeing this, parents lost control. They demanded to search for their child themselves and was approved after a short confrontation with the rescue team. However, they returned shortly with hopeless cries.

According to official report released from Suchuan provincial construction Bureau on May 26, in May 12 earthquake, buildings of 14,889,310,000㎡collapsed while School buildings covered 9,972,280,000㎡ accounting for 1.3% of the total. On inquiries of large figure of collapsed school buildings, Suchuan Provincial Construction Bureau presented three main reasons with a report. They are low standard on building assessment, strong earthquake magnitude and insufficient supervision on building design and construction. On high social demand over the investigation on school building quality, on May 26, Suchuan provincial construction Bureau and Sichuan Education Bureau issued No2008-75 urgent notice requiring investigation on all collapsed buildings with an emphasis on school.

Earthquake photos

Next page

Home                      About Us               Contact Us