China still counting quake's child death toll
The number of schoolchildren who died in China’s massive earthquake last year is still being calculated, an official said today.
The massive temblor last May left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing, but the government has never said how many of the casualties were students.
Most died when their shoddily-built primary and secondary schools collapsed.
The children’s deaths have become a sensitive political issue for the government, with victims’ parents staging protests demanding investigations. Many parents have also been subjected to intimidation and financial inducements to silence them.
Wei Hong, executive vice governor of Sichuan, said there were rules that must be followed to calculate the death toll, making the process “very complicated”.
“We need to conduct a series of calculations and checks, especially of the locations and basic information of those missing,” Mr Wei said.
“Before the exact final death toll has been confirmed, it is very hard to determine the correct number of schoolchildren who died.”
Thousands of children are believed to have died in their classrooms during the quake.
The government says 70,000 people died in Sichuan province and 7,000 classrooms were destroyed.
While the government has promised an investigation and punishment for those responsible for the poor school construction, there have been no public attempts to hold anyone to account.
Marches and sit-ins by grieving parents held within months of the quake were broken up by police, with some parents briefly detained.
