From the
San Francisco Chronicle. The picture shows a group of earthquake survivors.
BEIIJING -- A Chinese provincial official said May 7 that 5,335 students died in last year's Sichuan province earthquake. To activists who had pushed for the figure's release, it appeared too little and too late.
Parents of the dead children have been complaining for months that authorities were withholding the death toll to prevent the public from learning how many schools collapsed from shoddy construction during the May 12 quake.
Others estimate that students accounted for as many as 9,000 out of about 70,000 total earthquake fatalities. Beijing artist Ai Weiwei, who has sent volunteers into Sichuan to collect names, so far has counted more than 5,000 students, with many hard-hit towns still not tallied.
"Many people will doubt the accuracy of this figure," said Yang Licai, one of the volunteers. Still, he applauded the government for releasing the number.
"Whether or not it's the right figure, it is progress," he said. "The Chinese government recognizes that it needs to be more transparent and respond to the public's demand to know the truth."
China is under pressure to show how much it has changed since the last natural disaster of this magnitude - the 1976 earthquake in Tangshan, for which no credible death toll has been released. Last month, the Chinese government, in its first public assessment of its own human-rights situation, made the release of the earthquake victims' names a goal for the year.
The schools' collapse is the most politically sensitive aspect of the earthquake. Many parents and volunteers have been harassed, detained and in some cases beaten while asking questions about the schools.
From the San Francisco Chronicle. The picture shows a group of earthquake survivors.
