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Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Furious relatives demand answers
Grief gave way to anger in Wenzhou yesterday as relatives of the victims of Saturday’s high-speed train crash protested outside the municipal government offices, demanding railway officials meet them face to face.
Grief gave way to anger in Wenzhou yesterday as relatives of the victims of Saturday’s high-speed train crash protested outside the municipal government offices, demanding railway officials meet them face to face.
About 100 family members and friends of the dead - thought to number at least 39 - blocked the road in front of Wenzhou government headquarters at around 9pm last night after a two-hour stand-off with officials descended into farce.
“They are just playing games with us,” cried one relative before the situation escalated. “They are the ones who should be apologising to us, and instead we have to beg just to speak to them. The government has such a wonderful tower, but the people are left sweating in the street. Why don’t they let us inside to wait?”
An hour earlier a Wenzhou city official had held a sit-down meeting with the protesters’ de facto leader, 32-year-old widower Yang Feng, during which he promised the authority was prepared to talk.
“I have just heard that the new head of Shanghai Rail Bureau is about to arrive any moment. I have invited him here to meet with you,” said the official, who would not give his full name or job title.
When relatives realised the bureau chief was unlikely to show up, they marched across the wide road en masse, linking hands briefly to halt traffic and then milling around on the road for the next 30 minutes.
The protesters were calling for an explanation of what caused the accident - which has stunned the nation and raised concerns about the safety of the high-speed rail network - and answers to what they felt were serious discrepancies in the official account of events. They also accused officials of caring more about fixing the rail link than saving lives.
“We are not being told the truth,” Yang said.
“Why is it that more than 48 hours after the accident not a single person from the Ministry of Railways will meet us face to face?”
Yang said his seven-months-pregnant wife died in the crash, along with her mother, elder sister and nephew. He claimed their bodies had been discovered only in the middle of Sunday night after he and another relative begged rescue workers to check their crushed carriage again.
The railway ministry’s apparent wrong-footed handling of the disaster has sparked a public outcry, with mainland internet users turning to social media websites to express their anger and suspicion over the official accounts of the accident.
A slew of questions have been raised, ranging from the conflicting reports on the death toll, the cause of the accident, the hastily cleaned up scene, to the rush to reopen the track less than 36 hours after the country’s worst rail disaster since 2008.
Transport experts say they have been warning rail authorities about potential risk to the high-speed trains due to the lack of mechanisms to protect against lightning strikes, but that their concerns have been ignored.
The ministry, which has been unable to publish an official list of the victims, was also heavily criticised by online communities. Internet users have pieced together a list of dead and missing that concurs with the official toll, which last night stood at 39. Last night both Chinese Central Television and Xinhua were continuing to ask for information about missing people. The US Embassy in Beijing confirmed that two American citizens were among the dead.
Rail Minister Sheng Guangzu yesterday repeated apologies, but there is increasing pressure on him to resign over the disaster - the worst high-speed accident since the system was introduced in 2007.
1 comment:
Furious relatives demand answers
Will Clem in Wenzhou, Zhejiang
26 July 2011
Grief gave way to anger in Wenzhou yesterday as relatives of the victims of Saturday’s high-speed train crash protested outside the municipal government offices, demanding railway officials meet them face to face.
About 100 family members and friends of the dead - thought to number at least 39 - blocked the road in front of Wenzhou government headquarters at around 9pm last night after a two-hour stand-off with officials descended into farce.
“They are just playing games with us,” cried one relative before the situation escalated. “They are the ones who should be apologising to us, and instead we have to beg just to speak to them. The government has such a wonderful tower, but the people are left sweating in the street. Why don’t they let us inside to wait?”
An hour earlier a Wenzhou city official had held a sit-down meeting with the protesters’ de facto leader, 32-year-old widower Yang Feng, during which he promised the authority was prepared to talk.
“I have just heard that the new head of Shanghai Rail Bureau is about to arrive any moment. I have invited him here to meet with you,” said the official, who would not give his full name or job title.
When relatives realised the bureau chief was unlikely to show up, they marched across the wide road en masse, linking hands briefly to halt traffic and then milling around on the road for the next 30 minutes.
The protesters were calling for an explanation of what caused the accident - which has stunned the nation and raised concerns about the safety of the high-speed rail network - and answers to what they felt were serious discrepancies in the official account of events. They also accused officials of caring more about fixing the rail link than saving lives.
“We are not being told the truth,” Yang said.
“Why is it that more than 48 hours after the accident not a single person from the Ministry of Railways will meet us face to face?”
Yang said his seven-months-pregnant wife died in the crash, along with her mother, elder sister and nephew. He claimed their bodies had been discovered only in the middle of Sunday night after he and another relative begged rescue workers to check their crushed carriage again.
The railway ministry’s apparent wrong-footed handling of the disaster has sparked a public outcry, with mainland internet users turning to social media websites to express their anger and suspicion over the official accounts of the accident.
A slew of questions have been raised, ranging from the conflicting reports on the death toll, the cause of the accident, the hastily cleaned up scene, to the rush to reopen the track less than 36 hours after the country’s worst rail disaster since 2008.
Transport experts say they have been warning rail authorities about potential risk to the high-speed trains due to the lack of mechanisms to protect against lightning strikes, but that their concerns have been ignored.
The ministry, which has been unable to publish an official list of the victims, was also heavily criticised by online communities. Internet users have pieced together a list of dead and missing that concurs with the official toll, which last night stood at 39. Last night both Chinese Central Television and Xinhua were continuing to ask for information about missing people. The US Embassy in Beijing confirmed that two American citizens were among the dead.
Rail Minister Sheng Guangzu yesterday repeated apologies, but there is increasing pressure on him to resign over the disaster - the worst high-speed accident since the system was introduced in 2007.
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