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Soldiers, civilians and Tibetan monks combed through rubble in Qinghai province, two days after a powerful earthquake hit the remote region.
Heavy equipment and aid are now arriving in Yushu county, where 791 people are known to have died, with another 294 missing. Local people say they believe the number of dead is much higher. Visiting the area, Premier Wen Jiabao promised “all-out efforts” would be made to rebuild the devastated region. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports. (flickr imagage: Globovision)
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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World. Tibetan Monks joined with Chinese troops in a rescue and recovery mission in the western province of Qinghai today. They were struggling to dig out survivors and bodies following this week’s powerful earthquake. It flattened most of the mud, brick and wooden houses in this mostly Tibetan area. The death toll has risen to more than 1,100 but many are still missing. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports.
MARY KAY MAGISTAD: Rescue workers in southern Qinghai used equipment when they had it and brute strength when they didn’t. These Buddhist monks in long maroon robes worked together to heave debris from areas where survivors might be trapped. Hundreds of monks turned out to help the People’s Armed Police and troops who, for the past two year, had been busy cracking down on Tibetan areas like this one. Now, all were joined, if briefly, in a common effort. A monk named Galang was overwhelmed by the loss here.
INTERPRETER: I cannot describe my feelings now. There are so many people who died in this area. I feel very sad and full of grief.
MAGISTAD: A government relief official was more focused on the practical. He said we’re trying to rescue people. We urgently need tents and food and drinking water. We urgently need these supplies. The tents provide at least some shelter in a region where temperatures are dipping below freezing at night. Most homes have been destroyed and so have many schools. Critics say hasn’t anything changed since the Szechuan earthquake two years ago when schools collapsed while buildings around them remained standing? The Chinese official hedged yesterday when asked if school buildings in Qinghai had been reinforced since the Szechuan quake, something the government had pledged to do throughout the county. At least in Qinghai most buildings collapsed, although government buildings often remain standing. Some Tibetans have been quoted complaining that the rescue effort is focusing on cities, where more Han Chinese live and not the countryside, where more Tibetans live. Karma Hardy, Director of the Tibet Foundation in London, which is mounting an earthquake relief effort says he thinks it’s more complicated than that.
KARMA HARDY: There are different views. I mean some local people said sort of like a panicking way we are not receiving any aid or government help. Some issues are there. But in the meantime, speaking to the sensible people who are not really in a panic, who it hasn’t affected much, they think government help is quite huge and they are doing their best sort of thin.
MAGISTAD: For his part, Premier Wen Jiabao once again rushed to the scene to tell those affected how much he feels their pain. He said your tragedy is our tragedy, your loss is our loss, we are the same and this is so hard for all of us to go through. Just yesterday Wen had an article in the People’s Daily. He praised his mentor, former liberal President Hu Yaobang for acting in exactly the same way, going to the grassroots and connecting with people in need. Wen’s emotional tribute has created a stir because in the 23 years since Hu Yaobang was removed from office for being too liberal, he’s mostly been criticized by the Communist Party. After all, popular turnout for Hu’s funeral in 1989 sparked the beginning of the Tiananmen Square protests. Now, Wen Jiabao, while comforting a mostly Tibetan quake hit population, has conjured the spirit of Hu Yaobang again. Whether it’s a call for a more tolerant an inclusive policy in such areas is not yet clear. Still, in the wake of the quake, the more conservative current President, Hu Jintao, has cut short an overseas trip to come home. For The World, I’m Mary Kay Magistad in Beijing.
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