China in post-quake plan as parents protest
WUFU, China (Reuters) - Top Chinese officials considered onTuesday a plan to rebuild earthquake-ravaged parts of thecountry's southwest while protests by grieving parents anddangerous quake lakes cast a shadow over relief efforts.
The earthquake centred in Sichuan province has killed69,107 people and displaced more than 15 million, according toofficial figures on Tuesday. The death toll is likely to risewith 18,230 still listed as missing.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has nonetheless vowed to movequickly to rebuild towns and villages devastated by the May 12quake. He and other officials met to discuss a reconstructionplan for the region, state television reported.
"As quickly as possibly restore agricultural production inthe disaster area," the officials urged, also calling for rapidroad repairs and reviving trade and services.
But protests by parents who lost children in schoolsdestroyed during the quake also flared, underscoring thetensions that could erupt as grieving gives way to anger.
Many schools collapsed in the quake, killing more than9,000 students and teachers according to figures compiled byReuters.
Many parents blame shoddy buildings for the deaths,pointing to apartments and government offices that survivedwhile nearby schools fell.
In Dujiangyan, a small city near the Sichuan provincecapital Chengdu, police prevented some 150 grieving parentsfrom seeking to lodge a lawsuit over a collapsed middle school,Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.
Officers dragged away sobbing mothers clasping pictures ofchildren killed when a school building crumpled, the reportsaid. It said the parents want to sue the school and itsprincipal.
In the farming town of Wufu, angry parents kept vigil atthe ruins of a school, demanding those responsible be punished.
Nearly every building withstood the earthquake -- exceptthe three-storey Fuxin Number Two Primary School whichcollapsed, killing 129 children.
"We come here every day," said a woman named Zhang, whose10-year-old daughter died under the rubble.
"The children are here. We want to keep the childrencompany until there is a result."
WAITING FOR LAKE TO DRAIN
Troops and disaster officials have also been seeking todefuse threats from dangerous build-ups of water created byquake-caused landslides choking rivers.
The largest "quake lake" formed by China's most devastatingearthquake in decades is not expected to start draining untilThursday due to a lack of rain, the government said.
Some 210,000 residents downstream of that lake atTangjiashan have been evacuated to higher ground according to acontingency plan that foresees one third of the dam bursting.
Landslides caused by the May 12 quake have blocked rivers,forming more than 30 unstable "quake lakes" that threatenhundreds of thousands of people downstream.
In Yingxiu, thousands of rescuers have yet to find thewreckage of a military helicopter that crashed on May 31, afterscrounging the area of high mountains and valleys near thequake's epicentre for three days.
There were 19 people aboard the helicopter, including 14injured quake survivors and medical workers and five crew. Itlost contact amid cloudy weather after encountering strongturbulence on its 64th quake relief mission.
TENT CITIES
Relief workers face a daunting task in offering food andshelter to the homeless, treating the tens of thousands ofpeople still in hospital and rebuilding ravaged infrastructure,even as donations from home and abroad reached 42.4 billionyuan (3.1 billion pounds) on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Construction onTuesday asked governments in the quake area to submit plans onthe reconstruction of public buildings like schools andkindergartens by June 8, Xinhua news agency said.
Experts also began considering sites for a memorial to thequake victims, Xinhua reported.
To prepare for the memorial, the report said, officialshave "started to gather items related to the earthquake, suchas photos and the personal effects of the victims, includingschool bags".
(Writing by Guo Shipeng; Editing by Nick Macfie and JerryNorton)