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China still mum on number of students killed in quake
Beijing (AFP) March 8, 2009 China declined on Sunday to reveal how many schoolchildren were killed in last year's devastating earthquake, saying the politically sensitive figure still was not calculated nearly 10 months later. Schools bore the brunt of the May 12 quake in Sichuan province, with thousands collapsing on top of their students, fuelling angry charges from parents that official corruption had led to shoddy construction. "With the exact number of total quake victims still unsure, we cannot give an exact number of student victims," Sichuan Vice Governer Wei Hong told a press conference on the sidelines of China's parliamentary session in Beijing. He promised the figures would be released eventually. The 8.0-magnitude earthquake left nearly 88,000 people dead or missing, injured 375,000 and left more than five million homeless, according to previous official estimates. State media also has said previously 14,000 schools suffered damage in the quake, with about 7,000 collapsing entirely. Estimates of the numbers of students and teachers killed have been put at around 9,000 by the state press, but no firm figures have been released. The schools issue remains perhaps the most sensitive aspect of the disaster for the government, whose propaganda machine had otherwise seized on the quake as an example of the nation overcoming adversity under Communist Party leadership. Angry parents of dead children staged a number of protests following the quake, alleging corruption resulted in school walls that were like "tofu". Police eventually sealed off school ruins and barred domestic and foreign media reporting on the subject. Local residents later said police intimidation and cash payments had largely quelled the anger. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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