Woeful parents holding pictures of their children who died in the earthquakes. (PAULA BRONSTEIN/Getty Images)
An unofficial figure based on incomplete statistics (collected up to the end of April 2) showed that over 4,100 students died in the earthquake. However, this figure was removed from the Internet (the limited sites available in mainland China) on April 3.
As Tomb-sweeping Day approaches, the quake victims’ families have been holding traditional memorial services such as burning incense and scattering ‘ghost money.’
Mr. Wang, a parent whose child went to Beichuan Middle School, told the reporter that the police have been keeping a close eye on the families of the deceased students fearing they would organize a protest.
Mr. Chen, a parent from Shifang City, told the RFA reporter, “Two days ago government officials and police officers came to our house and told us we were not allowed to enter the school to perform memorial services. They said the same thing to all parents whose children died in the earthquake.” In the end, Chen held a service for his daughter at his home.
A parent from Maoba Middle School in Beichuan County told the RFA that there were police guarding and watching them hold the memorial services. “Most of the officers stood around the site saying they were present in case of fire, however, they wouldn’t let us walk around the site.”
Besides monitoring the parents, the authorities were nervous about anyone collecting information about the earthquake student death toll. Based on artist Ai Weiwei’s blog, when two volunteers went to Shifang to determine the numbers of dead, the police arrested them.
According to volunteers surnamed Li and Xu, they went to Shifang on April 1 to meet with a victim’s parents. Just as they contacted the parents by telephone, a man in his 40s approached and asked if they were conducting a survey.
Soon, the police came and took Li and Xu away. They were interrogated about how they had collected the names of the students, what the names list was for, and whether Ai Weiwei had paid them to collect the data.
To date, the authorities have not released the student death toll, and they seem to be nervous about anyone knowing even unofficial numbers. The volunteers’ report stated the police took all the materials Li and Xu collected in Shifang, including the names list of deceased students, their diaries, memory cards from their cameras, and notes from the survivors. The police did not issue a receipt for the things they confiscated.
The student death toll has been updated frequently on Ai’s blog. By the end of April 2, the number was up to 4,108. However, all statistics had been deleted from Ai’s website when the RFA reporter checked the website on April 3.
The victims’ families were upset about how the authorities are handling the situation. Mr. Kong, a student from Dongqi Middle School in Mianzhu City, said, “When some parents went to claim their children’s bodies at Dongqi Middle School they counted more than 300 bodies; but the authorities claimed there were 200.”
Mr. Lu, parent of a student from Beichuan Middle School, said the official media only reported 600 deaths at the school. “There were 1,487 people who died in Beichuan Middle School because of the earthquake, more than 40 of them were faculty and staff. This number was not made public until a parent went to the local police bureau requesting a DNA test because they couldn’t find their child’s body. The bureau stated the real number.”
Edited by The Epoch Times
