Parents say Sichuan quake school not built to code

Thursday, March 19, 2009

By AUDRA ANG,

Associated Press Writer AP - Friday, March 20

BEIJING - Parents of students who died in last year's powerful earthquake in southwest China said Thursday that design blueprints of one of the worst-hit schools support claims that builders ignored safety standards.
Comparisons between blueprints for Beichuan Middle School in Sichuan province and reinforced concrete exposed in the wreckage showed steel bars far thinner than originally planned, said Xu Changyun, a 39-year-old construction worker whose son was killed when the school folded.
Xu and another parent, Wei Yongqiang, also said steel, cement and bricks intended for the school's construction were sold onward by unscrupulous contractors. Xu said he knew people who had bought the materials, but declined to give their names, saying most had been intimidated by authorities into not talking.
'Our main goal is to question the quality problems of the school and get justice,' Xu said in a telephone from the mountainous region in southwestern China.
A woman at the Beichuan county government office said the official authorized to talk to media was not available. Telephones rang unanswered at the Sichuan provincial government office.
The accusations go to the heart of an ongoing battle waged between parents and Sichuan officials who have sought to stifle their accusations and bury the issue of school collapses.
Parents claim that shoddy construction and official corruption were the reason why up to 7,000 classrooms collapsed while nearby buildings remained standing after the May 12 quake left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing.
While the government has promised an investigation and punishment for those responsible, there have been no public attempts to hold anyone to account. Officials have repeatedly refused to release a full tally of student deaths.
Marches and sit-ins by grieving parents to demand answers were broken up by police, with some parents briefly detained. Many have been threatened not to pursue their campaign while being offered money to drop their claims.
Even possession of school blueprints can bring trouble.
Xu said local police last year confiscated blueprints from Beichuan parents and warned them not to visit the courts.
One parent whose two daughters died at Beichuan, Mu Yongxian, was detained last year for having a copy and accused of illegally possessing state secrets, said the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.
And earlier this month, three people who presented the school construction blueprint to delegates at the country's annual legislative session were also later summoned by Sichuan state security authorities and accused of violating state secrets, the center said in a statement faxed Wednesday to journalists.
Wei Hong, executive vice governor of Sichuan, told reporters at the legislative session that the strength of the magnitude-7.9 earthquake _ not poor construction _ was the main reason so many schools collapsed. The quake left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing.
Wei said the conclusion was made after an investigation by engineering experts from Tsinghua University and official experts from Sichuan.
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Associated Press researcher Xi Yue contributed to the report.