'We'll never go back,' angry villagers insist
Posted: Thursday, May 29, 2008 3:21 PM
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Beijing, China
By Kari Huus, msnbc.com reporter
MIANYANG, China — More than two weeks into the rescue and relief efforts following the massive earthquake in China, most survivors seem eager and grateful to get into their assigned tent cities, where there is a at least a semblance of order and privacy. But at the Mianyang Sports Stadium, where thousands of people have taken refuge since the disaster, I encountered a knot of agitated people who believe the encampment established near their devastated village is a death trap and an insult.
"We’ll never go back," said an enraged Zhao Qunfang, a 77-year-old woman who is one of many residents of the town of Leigu has been staying in the stadium rather than report to their assigned resettlement camp. "We died once already. If we go back, we may die again."
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| Kari Huus / msnbc.com |
| Zhao Qunfang, right, and Xie Chenghua, among the residents of Leigu in Beichuan County who were evacuated to Mianyang Sports Stadium after the earthquake destroyed their small town, denounce plans Sunday to return them to the devastated area. |
As we talk, the crowd presses in and angry voices rise in a chorus. It is impossible to take it all in, but several themes emerge. The surviving residents from Leigu, in Beichuan County, are traumatized. Nearly everyone there lost a relative and they all witnessed their hometown awash in blood and bodies.
They are furious that their local officials didn’t consult them before making a radio announcement assigning them to a tent city set up in Beichuan county. They say that not only is the camp in a dangerous place, it is too near the nightmare they have just been through.
"People cannot imagine. We couldn’t get out of there without stepping on people’s corpses," said Xie Chenghua.
On Sunday, they were gathered at Gate 17 of the stadium, awaiting a meeting with an official from Leigu to discuss their concerns. But they had been waiting a long time and were disgusted as it became clear that the official would not show up.
"(Premier) Wen Jiabao came here," shouted one man. "But our (local) hotshot hasn’t showed his face! Maybe he thinks he’s more important than Wen."
This small group among some 5 million left homeless by the May 12 earthquake is but one piece of a bigger picture -- a relief effort that has gone remarkably well so far. But their anger is a sobering reminder of the immensity and sensitivity of the task ahead. To get people back into housing will require thousands of consequential decisions — difficult in the best of times and now being made in an atmosphere of fear, anger and bottomless grief.
