[08.07.27 英国泰晤士报] 中国收买痛苦中的父母使其封口

【08.07.27 Times】
【来源】Times 英国泰晤士报
【链接】 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/china/article4406822.ece
【标题】中国收买痛苦中的父母使其封口
【正文】

China buys the silence of grieving parents
Earthquake: Free ‘life insurance’ has been offered to families of children who were killed when schools collapsed

WE did not notice the cars following us until we drove out of the village ontothe dusty track leading to the rice fields. Crawling menacingly in thedistance, the cars briefly lost sight of us when we turned a corner but wereclose enough to catch up again at a moment’s notice.

We had no option but to keep driving. Inside our car, a man I shall call LiuQiang was explaining why he had texted me and arranged a meeting.

One of hundreds of parents who lost children in schools that collapsed duringthe Sichuan earthquake in May, he was in a state of deep shock when I methim four days after the quake. Choked with tears and unable to hide hisanger, he took me to see his 13-year-old daughter’s freshly dug grave.Before I left, we swapped telephone numbers, and we have kept in contactsince.

Ten weeks later we arranged to meet again on a busy street corner, not farfrom his home, to talk about the Chinese government’s attempts to buy theparents’ silence with spurious offers of free life insurance.

“I don’t want to fall out with the government,” he said firmly. “All I’masking for is justice for our dead children.”

He had just come from a meeting called by village officials. All the parentswho had lost children in the local middle school – more than 100 familieswere affected – had been asked to attend. He fished out a folded sheet ofpaper with writing on one side – an application form for basic lifeinsurance handed out at the meeting.

The form asked for details of the dead child and their parents’ ID and mobilephone numbers. It left space at the bottom for the signatures of parents andrepresentatives of the school and a government official. There was no sum ofmoney mentioned; no details of the coverage, to whom it would apply or forhow long.

“We were rounded up and ordered to sign the contract if we wanted to collectthe government’s gift of free life insurance,” Liu explained. “They alsosaid we would get £5,000 in cash as compensation for our dead children.”Some parents were already signing their forms.

“How do we even know if it is real life insurance?” he said. “If we accept thecash, my wife and I want to use it to take the local government to courtover the death of our daughter, but we’re afraid it is not enough to coverthe legal fees.

“If we don’t sign the contract, we are afraid we will be left with no childrenand no money to look after us when we grow old.

“We’re thinking about having another child to safeguard our future. Eventuallythat child will also have to go to school and we’re afraid if we don’tcooperate with the government now they will cause problems for the childlater on.”

Liu’s voice strained as he mentioned the possibility of having a new child sosoon after his daughter died. He added quietly that his wife was already 34and they had little time to decide.

“They’re trying to buy our silence,” he said, his voice cracking. “All thepeople in our village are poor, but how can the money they are offering makeup for the losses we have suffered?”

It is a dilemma felt by all the parents whose children died. At least 10,000of the 70,000 people who perished in the earthquake were of school age; thegovernment has done its best to play down the number of schools thatcollapsed.

Sichuan’s bereaved parents refuse to stay silent, however, and, as details ofshoddy construction work emerge, a case for corruption is mounting.

One example is Xinjian primary school in Dujiangyan, where more than 400 ofthe 600 students died. The main building collapsed in less than fourminutes, but nearly all the structures around it survived. Bereaved parentshave been subjected to a campaign of intimidation and bribery to bully theminto silence.

Liu told me that all the parents in his village had been made to give theirmobile phone numbers to the police and were warned that their phone linescould be tapped for “security reasons”. Plain-clothes police had beendeployed to their village to spy on them and everywhere they went they feltthey were being “watched”. One bereaved couple made secret plans to travelto Beijing and petition the government. They were apprehended by police andordered to return home.

There was no mistaking the two cars gaining speed behind us. I needed to getLiu out of the vehicle before stopping to face them. We sped back to thevillage, letting Liu slip out onto a busy side street to dissolve into thecrowd.

Thirty seconds later I was joined again by the two cars and when we stopped amile further on, they pulled up, followed by three more. Several uniformedpolicemen and a number of people in civilian clothing piled out. I was askedto hand over my passport. As they stood writing down my details, onepoliceman filmed me while several of the plain-clothes men snapped me ontheir mobile phone cameras.
At the station they let me go after an hour of questioning, but not before Ihad signed and fingerprinted a letter of apology for going to places “undersupervision” by the authorities.

“The Chinese authorities promised when bidding for the Olympics that hostingthe Games would improve human rights, but things have got worse, notbetter,” said Steve Ballinger of Amnesty International. “We want people herein the UK to speak up – online and in letters and faxes to the Chineseauthorities – and demand human rights for China.”

Many Sichuan schools were ‘time bombs’

At the Xinjian primary school in Dujiangyan, more than 400 out of the 687killed were children. A nursery school less than 20ft away was barelycracked. A 10-storey hotel opposite was also largely intact. Parents say theschool was known to be unsafe but it was not properly reinforced because ofits low importance compared with other schools in the area.

Another school in the same town, catering for children of the Communist elite,was so structurally sound that it was used by officials as their base afterthe earthquake struck.

Independent evidence from structural engineers confirmed that the materialsused to build the school were unsafe and a “time bomb waiting to explode”.The entrance was also too small for emergency vehicles to pass through toreach the site after the accident.

In Wufu village 126 children aged between nine and 13 died. Parents said theschool was ruled unsafe 10 months ago and the children moved to asingle-storey structure next door. They were moved back again withoutexplanation shortly before the disaster struck.

At least 10,000 of the 70,000 people who died in the earthquake were of schoolage. The government has promised a full investigation into why the schoolscollapsed.

【翻译 by rodmace】
中国收买痛苦中的父母使其封口
地震：因学校倒塌而受难的儿童的父母们被给与免费的“人寿保险”

直到我们开车出村来到通向大米地的土路的时候，我们才注意到有车尾随我们。他们的车跟在我们后面有一定距离，当我们在路口拐弯的时候他们的车就从我们视线中消失，但是总是可以很快又跟上来。

我们没有别的选择只能继续向前开。在车里，一位叫刘强的男子向我们解释了为什么他会给我发来短息并安排了这次会谈。

作为数百名在四川年地震倒塌的校舍中失去孩子的父母的一员，他在震后的第四天跟我见面的时候还沉浸在巨大的震惊中。伴着巨大的悲痛以及无法掩饰的内心的愤恨，他带我来到其13岁女儿的新坟。在我离开前，我们交换了电话并且自此一直保持联系。

十个星期之后，我们在据他家不远的一个繁忙的街角又一次见面。这一次我们谈到了有关中国政府试图利用非正常的免费保险来收买这些父母。

“我并不想跟政府找麻烦”他坚定的说，“我所要求的仅仅是还我们死去的孩子以正义。”

他刚刚参加了村政府召开的一个会议。所有因校舍倒塌而失去孩子的父母们（一共有100多个家庭）都被要求参加。他从一叠纸里面抽出了一张，那是一份在会议中发放的基本人寿保险的申请表。

那份表格上要求父母们填入他们的身份证件信息和移动电话号码。在表的后面还给父母们还有当地政府留有签名盖章用的空白。表上没有关于总体赔偿金额的信息，也没有保单范围、有效期限等等信息。

“如果我们要想从政府那里拿到免费的人寿保险大礼，我们就签一份合同，”刘继续解释道。“他们还说我们会因死难的孩子拿到价值5000英镑现金的赔偿。”一些父母已经在他们的表格上签名。

“我们怎么知道这是不是真正的人寿保险？”他说道。“如果我们接受的这笔钱，我老婆和我准备用这笔钱来起诉当地政府失职导致我们女儿的死亡，但我们怕这笔钱不足够支付所用的法律诉讼费用。”

“如果我们不签那份合同，我们的下场恐怕就是没了孩子也没有一分钱的补偿来给我们自己养老。”

“我们正在考虑是不是再生一个孩子作为我们日后的保障。然而，最终那个孩子还是要去上学，我们就怕如果我们现在不跟政府合作，他们以后会找我们的麻烦。”

刘在讲到有关再生一个孩子的时候把声音放低了。他最后轻轻的补充说他的妻子已经34岁了而他们也没有多少时间剩下来让他们来做决定。

“他们想让我们封口。”他越讲越快，“在我们村所有的人都很穷，但是他们给的那些钱又怎么能弥补我们
受的这些苦呢？”

对于那些失去还是的父母还说是充满矛盾的。至少7万在地震中不幸去世的人中有一万人是在上学的年纪，而政府已经尽其全力来低调处理倒塌校舍的数量的问题。

四川那些死者的父母们拒绝沉默，然而当豆腐渣工程的具体问题被揭露的时候，腐败问题开始浮出水面。

其中一个例子就是在都江堰的新建（音译）小学。在那里多达400到600名学生死亡。学校的主楼在不到4分钟的时间内垮塌，然而在其周围的其他建筑皆幸免于难。死者父母收到了各种威胁或者贿赂来让他们保持沉默。

刘告诉我说在他的村子，所有的父母都被迫向警方提供了他们的手机号码并且被警告说他们的电话有可能因为“安全原因”被监听。便衣警察已经部署在他的村子周围来监视他们的一举一动。他们去往任何地方都感觉被“监视”着。一对死者家属试图秘密前往北京向政府申诉。他们最终被警方扣留并强制他们回家。

跟在我们后面的两辆车突然开始加速。我必须在被要求停车前要让刘赶紧下车。我们快速返回村子，在一个繁忙的街边放下刘，以便他能够迅速淹没在人群中。

30秒钟后，我的车又被那两辆车追上。我们在一英里以外停下车，他们也停下来，并且后面又多跟了3辆车。几个穿制服的警察和几个平民打扮的人下了车。我被要求提供我的护照。当他们开始记录我的个人信息时，一个警察开始对我摄像而其他几个便衣则用他们的手机对我拍照。
在警局，他们对我进行了1个小时左右的问话即把我释放，但前提是我必须要在一份道歉信上签名并且按上手印而原因则是我去了那些被当地政府”监控”的地区。

“中国政府在申办奥运的时候承诺它会改善人权，但是事情变的更坏了，而不是更好。”大赦国际的（混蛋头子—译者加）Steve Ballinger在接受采访时说，“我们希望在英国的人民大声疾呼，通过网络或者信件等各种途径给中国政府施压，来寻求中国的人权。”

很多四川学校就好比“定时炸弹”

在都江堰的新建（音译）小学，在687名遇难者中有多于400人是儿童。而旁边几米远的一个护士学校却几乎毫发未伤。在街对面一座10层楼高的宾馆也总体上未受损害。父母们说人们早就知道学校不安全但是还是没有进行适当的加固，就因为这个学校和区内其他学校相比并不重要。
在同一个地区的另外一个学校，作为共产党精英子女学校，因为其建筑结构太结实了，以至于震后作为政府的办公地点。

从一些独立结构工程师提供的证据表明，学校的建筑材料并不安全就像是一枚“随时等待爆炸的定时炸弹”。正门也被认为太小以至于无法使得急救车辆在事故发生后进入学校。

在五福（音译）村，126名9到13岁的儿童死亡。父母们说学校早在10个月前就被检验为危房而学生则被安排搬到了旁边的平方中。而在地震前不久，他们在没有给出任何理由的情况下又被要求搬回危楼里。

7万名地震死难者中至少有1万人还是适龄的学生。中国政府已经承诺会对学校倒塌原因进行全面的调查。

[ 本帖最后由 ltbriar 于 2008-8-1 09:23 编辑 ]

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