In China's quake zone, pain and anger (Today is anniversary)

[Coventina]

Source: USA Today

ANREN, China — From the famous pig that survived under rubble for 36 days, to a water bottle used by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao as he toured devastated buildings and schools, the Wenchuan Earthquake Museum seems to have it all.
There are crushed cars, battered toys and discarded school backpacks — legacies of the magnitude-7.9 earthquake that, a year ago today, killed as many as 90,000 people in southwestern China. Yet the museum, which opened Monday, contains no mention of what continues to be the quake's biggest controversy: how schools collapsed in disproportionately high numbers, killing thousands of children and infuriating parents who still blame shoddy government construction practices.

The omission is intentional, says Fan Jianchuan, the museum's founder. He backs the Communist Party's version of events: that the quake was a tragedy but the government responded effectively, and a probe into possible abuses would only upset the nation's prized stability.

"We must leave problems like this for history to resolve," Fan says.

Across Sichuan and other hard-hit provinces, entire towns and villages are being rebuilt in one of the most ambitious disaster-relief projects ever undertaken. Many who lost children or loved ones are trying to move on. Yet it is clear that despite initial hopes that the earthquake would lead to greater transparency in government — and maybe even justice for the dead — China's culture of political secrecy and total social control has emerged from the tragedy as strong as ever.



Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-05-11-chinaquake_N.htm