By Lindsay Beck
XIANG'E, China (Reuters) - Yang Xueshu knows he wantsjustice, he just doesn't know where to turn to get it.
His 14-year-old daughter, Yang Ting, died along with morethan 400 of her schoolmates when the Xiang'e Middle School camecrashing down in China's May 12 earthquake.
Like parents in towns across the region, Yang believescorruption in school construction was to blame for the collapseof his daughter's school and he wants answers from thegovernment.
"We want to sue, but we can't sue. We don't have that kindof strength. We're just farmers," he said.
Domestic media reports compiled by Reuters put the combinedtoll from deaths of children and teachers in the rubble ofschools at more than 9,000. At least 69,000 people died in thequake.
Parents in Xiang'e, a poor farming community whosescattered, low-slung houses sit amid fields of corn and ricepaddy, sought an explanation at the education bureau in thenearby city of Dujiangyan, but they haven't got the answersthey need.
"No one received us. They told us the person responsiblewasn't there, but we didn't believe them," said Li Fuliang, 40,who lost his son Li Wei at the Xiang'e school.
"We waited there for three or four hours in the hot sun.After a while one person came out and started scolding us andmade us go," he said.
Eventually, village and township officials were called inand forced them to leave, he said.
Around the region, parents tell similar tales -- they wantanswers but do not know what path to take in a country whoseCommunist authorities see seeking redress as subversive.
PROMISES
In the town of Wufu, where the Fuxin Number Two primaryschool is the only building that collapsed in the quake,killing hundreds of children, parents says the local governmenthas promised them the results of an investigation by June 20.
"What do we have to be afraid of? We've lost everything,"said a woman surnamed Zheng, whose 10-year-old daughter waskilled at the school.
But none of the parents, who keep a vigil in a shaded areaat the edge of the rubble of their children's' school, areclear about what to do if they don't get they're not satisfiedwith the response.
One said they would file a suit; another said they wouldpetition higher authorities.
None of the parents at the schools in Wufu and Xiang'e, orat the Xinjian primary school in Dujiangyan, which was also theonly building on its block to collapse, said they had been incontact with a lawyer.
Over 200 relatives of children killed in Muyu townconverged in the county seat of Qingchuan to ask if a collapseddormitory was up to standard and if any locked doors hadimpeded the children's escape.
The Muyu Middle School relatives were unsatisfied with anofficial's denial of both points and pledge of a further answerwithin two days.
"He only said false words... We felt we were unimportant,"said a mother surnamed Zhang, whose 15-year-old son died in theruins of the school dormitory, a former clinic built in 1972.
Relatives took the windy mountain roads to Qingchuan, butsaid police had stopped one group that tried to rent a bus froma different village to the county seat.
In Xiang'e, parents say the school went up only six orseven years ago. Why should it have crumpled into rubble?
Many of the children there, they say, were found in whatremained of the stairwells as they rushed to get out.
They suspect that the construction was shoddy and want toknow whose pocket funds that were meant for the school buildingended up in.
"100 percent of the families here want an explanation forthe school construction," said Ma Fuquan, whose 13-year-olddaughter Ma Yu died in the collapse.
"In our hearts we are extremely angry, but we don't knowwhat to do."
(Additional reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by NickMacfie)
