Le 30 mai, dans le Journal, nous expliquions la colère montante des parents d'enfants victimes de l'effondrement de leurs écoles lors du tremblement de terre dans le Sichuan. Ils dénonçaient la corruption des officiels locaux. La photo de Jiang, secrétaire général du parti dans le district du Mianzhou suppliant à genoux les parents de ne pas manifester avait fait le tour de la presse chinoise. Hier, l'homme s'est expliqué dans une interview donnée au Quotidien Moderne de Wenxue et que le blog EastSouthWestNorth a relevée et traduite vers l'anglais.
Agrandissement : Illustration 1
Q: The work related to the schools and the parents of the student casualties must also be a tough problem for you?
A: Yes. On May 18, the Fuxin Number Two Primary School parents went out into the streets and also established a mourning hall at the site. I said that I could understand that and I asked the Department of Education deputy director to take time away from the rescue command center to talk to them. On May 25, the parents gathered together in the city to petition. I thought that the event was heading towards being out of control. I used to be a public security bureau director and I know that this is dangerous. You think about it. Many students have died, and the parents are emotionally excited. The streets are filled with disaster victims living in tents. If someone starts a riot, it will go out of control with unimaginable consequences. I said, "No, I'll have to solve this problem."
Q: Why did you kneel down in front of the parents?
A: I made a mistake in my initial judgment. In the past, people seek out the leaders when they have a problem. Once the leader shows up, the matter calms down in deference to the party secretary or mayor. But what happened that day deviated from custom. The parents were bounded together by the bitterness and sorrow of losing their children. Overnight they refused to recognize me. Wufu is not the heaviest hit town in the earthquake. But the classroom building of the Fuxin Number Two Primary School collapsed with 129 schoolchildren dead. The parents thought that the classroom building had collapsed as the result of a natural disaster as well as human faults. I promised to make a thorough investigation of the building, but I needed time. The parents did not think so. I was concerned. I knelt down to express a certain degree of sincerity, not to put on a show. I don't remember how many times I knelt down. Afterwards, someone said that I knelt four times. I have never thought about kneeling down in the past over any issue. But in the face of this catastrophe, I can put aside all personal concerns and misgivings.
Q: You promised the parents that you will investigate the quality issue about the collapsed classroom building. Has that begun yet?
A: After the earthquake, we identified eight different points of investigation. All these are schools that had serious collapsed buildings, massive casualties and civilian doubts. This was not just about the Fuxin Number Two Primary School alone. The Fuxin Number Two Primary School was the first one to be investigated. So far, we have investigated six schools in Mianzhu city. We asked the Deyang City Party Committee to find provincial level and other city architectural experts to investigate and decide. None of the local Mianzhu city experts are participating. In addition, the State Council and the provincial government will be organizing higher-level experts to analyze the deeper structural reasons behind these school building collapses. If these experts determined that certain buildings were dangerous or contained problems, we will follow the relevant state regulations to seek accountability and make compensation.