An explosion at an elementary school killed 39 children and four adults in Bejing, China. Initially the Chinese government had insisted that blame for the explosion be placed on a mad man who detonated a bomb that was strapped to his chest. Premier Zhu Rongji, speaking to Hong Kong reporters during an annual parliamentary session in Beijing, dismissed the alleged "fireworks" reports. "He had grievances and had mental illness. His wife divorced him, so he was alone and single and he transported these fireworks and materials to the ground floor. He lit them and he blew himself up," Premier Zhu Rongji insisted.
It wasn't until parents of the children that were killed in the explosion expressed their outrage on message boards and chat rooms on the Internet, of all places, did the truth come out.
You see, there wasn't any deranged suicide bomber behind the explosion at the school.
Apparently, third graders were being made to make fireworks to earn extra cash for the Fanglin Elementary School in Jiangxi province's Wanzai County where their children attended.
Long before the fateful explosion, the parents of the third grade children were upset about having their children make fireworks. In fact, after the explosion, relatives of the dead children were so furious that the 200 troops that were brought in to dig the bodies from the rubble had to drop their shovels and intervene to prevent attacks on the local county officials.
Eventually when western journalists got a hold of the story, the Chinese government admitted that there was no suicide bomber, that they stole a corpse from a morgue and blamed the explosion on him.
The explosion completely leveled four classrooms.
Officials in the region said families of the victims would receive cash compensation.
"Every family will get 30,000 Yuan from the government and 2,000 Yuan from the insurance company. The whole thing has been dealt with well," said one. |
