China Remembers Quake With Flowers, Anger

One Year After Earthquake Killed 90,000, Many Seek Accountability For Collapsed Schools - And Get None

(CBS/AP)  State leaders laid flowers and survivors burned paper money for departed spirits as a mournful China marked the first anniversary Tuesday of a devastating earthquake that left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing and five million homeless.

Addressing a memorial service before a destroyed school in the Sichuan province town of Yinxiu, President Hu Jintao pledged strengthened support for rebuilding and disaster prevention.

"We must strengthen our will, and increase our momentum, and overcome difficulties, and spare no effort to finish the three year target of rebuilding within two years," said Hu, before leading military and civilian leaders, diplomats, students and emergency services workers in laying carnations before a stone memorial.

The 30-minute ceremony followed a minute of silence beginning at 2:28 p.m., the moment the magnitude-7.9 temblor - the deadliest earthquake to hit China in decades - struck on May 12, 2008, toppling or burying villages, snapping bridges and razing large portions of Sichuan and two neighboring provinces.

The somber, nationally televised ceremony filled with flowers and speeches - providing an unusually cathartic public moment for the normally distant Chinese leadership- underscored the disaster's searing effect on the national consciousness.

Traffic was heavy on narrow roads leading into the deep mountains that surround Beichuan, the closest major town to the epicenter of the quake. Police blocked roads about 3 miles from the heart of the old town, leaving hundreds of former residents to stream into the mountains on foot, many heading out before dawn.

Grief And Anger

Mourners gathered at a destroyed middle school in Beichuan where about one thousand students and faculty were killed, piling flowers and burning candles and sticks of incense amid the smoke and crackle of exploding firecrackers.

Many brought pictures of their dead children and pasted notes to a metal fence surrounding the rubble.

Burning paper money as an offering to their 17-year-old son who was crushed in the school collapse, Jin Dalan and her husband Chen Guanghui gave voice both to their bereavement and continuing resentment over the government's treatment of parents.

"I'm just trying to talk to him to ask why he doesn't visit me in my dreams. I just want to know that he's OK and that no one is bullying him," said Jin, 45.

(Left: A nurse weeps near a sign which reads, "Sincerely commemorate the May 12 major earthquake victims," in Beichuan, May 12, 2009.)

Chen, like many parents of dead students, said he was still waiting for a proper response to allegations that school's were inherently unsafe as a result of shoddy construction enabled by corruption and weak oversight.

"Of course I'm angry. The school was badly built. Nothing else around here collapsed," Chen, 47, said.

Wu Zhenwei and his wife, Fu Guiqun, lost their son, Wu Pin, during the earthquake. He was studying at the Beichuan Middle School, and they searched for days to find his body, but he is still missing.

They say their mourning has now turned to anger, and they hold the government responsible for the poorly-built school buildings.

Wu Zhenwei, a construction worker, said he has built pig pens that could withstand more than the school in Beichuan.

"I work in construction and some of the pig pens that I have built in the past 10 to 20 years are stronger. The buildings that our country built can withstand earthquakes of 7 to 8 magnitude but the schools are shoddily built," he said.

Fu Guiqun said she wants to continue fighting for justice for her son.

"Our son is dead, I don't feel like living anymore so I am not afraid, I want to speak up. My son died a terrible death. Why did the school have to collapse, the buildings are so poorly constructed?" she said.

The quake cast a shadow over the Beijing Summer Olympics that followed in August, and while Chinese media have continued to report on developments in the quake zones, new concerns have since begun to compete for attention.

(Left: People visit the quake-devastated town of Beichuan on the one year anniversary of the disaster.)

Although the government continues to fund reconstruction, the devastation to the local economy (accompanied by the global economic crisis) has cast doubts on whether the remote region will ever fully recover.

In the days leading up to the anniversary, the nation struggled with the worldwide outbreak of swine flu, with China's first case officially confirmed in Sichuan's provincial capital of Chengdu on Monday.

Critics Of Corruption Silenced

The most politically incendiary issue, however, remains the issue of school safety amid allegations that corruption and mismanagement led to shoddy construction.

Parents have tried to sue or petition local and central authorities, but many have been detained or warned against speaking out.

Activists and lawyers who have tried to help them have met the same fate.

CBS News correspondent Celia Hatton reports the government has made the issue taboo, raising tensions in the quake zone. CBS News was questioned by Sichuan police while reporting on the anniversary; other foreign journalists for the Financial Times were assaulted.

So volatile is the issue that until last week, the government had refused to release an official tally of students who died, saying the task was complicated and time-consuming.

That figure, released in an apparent response to public pressure, showed 5,335 students were killed in the quake - although parents and activists say the number is too low.

So far, no one has been punished or held responsible over the schools, and officials insist that they have not found evidence so far of shoddy construction - a claim questioned by experts and parents alike.

Xu Changyun, a 39-year-old construction worker who also lost his son at the Beichuan school, said parents were losing hope of ever finding justice.

"I've lost all the hope deep inside, and I don't think our effort will have any effect," Xu said.

[wcreader]

It is still sad when the 8.0 quake took away so many lives a year ago. When so many lives were lost, there will be sorrow, there will be Grief And Anger, Our prayer is that the Mighty one from above will comfort and cure the wound. Learn from the mistake or careless, and move forward to build a better, enrich, loving life, stronger community of love, care one another and with responsibility. Regarding to the angle in reporting. One is easily find the find huge discrepancy between east and the AP/some western new media. Take this AP report an example, many had see it will selective, or partial quote negative news/comment to describe effort of China and local official of wrong doing regardless the fact that it is a 8.0 quake. Of course, we need a stronger build code if one knows there will be quake as big as 8 or higher. Yet, as every report, it fails recognize many local official had work hard to settle million to temp housing, it did not mention the fact that not 90% schools has been rebuild and is almost ready to be open by Sept, 09; many farmers had move in new houses.. It is just sad and bias. Use a disaster to Enlarge and magnifying negative publicity. I am start wonder if this journalist had been sleeping or party for the past 50 years; they still live in the 60s of last century. They may just ?copy and paste? one of their old USSR newspaper and fill in a new name and date. Don't they know the past 30s, there are huge changes in the land call China, China have been transformed from a poor, isolated country in 70s and 80s to the 3rd or 4th world economy body after US, Japan and Germany today. Today, Chinese people are enjoying a much better life and today Chinese is more relax and has as many freedom as anyone in the western world, believe or not in one only bombard by the negative publicity news of AP. Again there is a lot of room for China to continue to improve. How come many western media fail to see the process? The wish list for these ?elegant?, ?nose high? AP irresponsible journalists to drop the biasing, go and report the fact, provide the whole and complete picture of China. That is just a wish from an insignificant reader.

[sopheapang]

People must not know how powerful a magnitude 7.9 earthquake is. Had this earthquake occured under the CBS/AP buildings, I highly doubt that those despicable goons (CBS/AP reporters) would continue to write those irresponsible and adulterated stories like "China Admits Students Death Toll" instead of "China Announces Students Death Toll". These goons certainly know how to use words to mislead the general innocent public.

[lucytomato]

The Chinese people deserve better, and worse still, for Beijing, they know it.
---------Posted by alphaa10000 at 2:50 PM : May 12, 2009

well,I have to say you can only get news from CBS or other American media ,also I can not agree with you.IN FACT ,what the chinese people do during the earthquake is absolutely amazing .Needless to say ,their Prime Minister went to disaster area at the first time under dangerous aftershock ,the PLA , which total number was almost beyond 100,000 , set off for saving people during 3 days ! All of people there were selfless for finding survivors ,the power which they aroused is moving , shining .they have already been trying their best for starting new life.

Now let' me show you some data about this 7.9 temblor ----
1, LOSE
90,000 people died , 374640 people hurt ,500,000 square kilometers hitted
845.1 billion yuan disapper
2, LOVE from wrold (thousand--US dollar)
Saudi Arabia 60000
India 4000
Korea, 1000
Britain , 1000 (GBP)
Norway, 4000
IOC, 1000
Russia, 4000
Japan 5200
Rich USA 500
CBS 0

some one who can speak chinese can get the data from Taiwan , Hong Kong,that must be more likely.

[blog_fever2]

God sometimes allows things to happen to get our attention.....

[hottip]

Taking pleasure in other's mishap and critizise other countries miss-did in prejustic or
hypophetic manners . that is being disobeyed the modern laws and over rule without
ojective evidences or bases .Of course,can't hinge your thought ,hypocrisy which help
completting your speech is right or intend for. Showing other not all-right , is n't you are right ,is meerly striking first blow ,no differeces.

[DaVicar5]

Many Seek Accountability For Collapsed Schools - - - - >


That would be Isaac Newton's fault.

[lucytomato]

Yes ,they must give a quick answer for the living people .