综合一区欧美国产,99国产麻豆免费精品,九九精品黄色录像,亚洲激情青青草,久久亚洲熟妇熟,中文字幕av在线播放,国产一区二区卡,九九久久国产精品,久久精品视频免费

   

China slave scandal brings resignation calls

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-06-18 19:16

Chinese media demanded official resignations and repentance on Monday amid popular outrage over the virtual enslavement of workers in scorching brick kilns that reports said had operated with government complicity.

Hundreds of farmers, teenagers and even some children were trapped or cheated into gruelling work in kilns, mines and foundries across Shanxi province in north China and neighbouring Henan province. Nearly 600 have been freed so far, reports said.

The workers endured prison-like confinement with fierce dogs and beatings, local media reported. One supervisor accidentally killed a child with a shovel and hid the body at night. Released workers were shown on television with festering wounds and emaciated bodies.

The scandal has emboldened local media to bluntly demand answers from the Communist Party and to demand that official heads roll.

"Who'll assume responsibility for this crime that has lasted for over a decade?" asked the Southern Metropolis Daily, a popular tabloid.

Local officials now parading as liberators of trapped workers had long turned a blind eye to the human trade, it said.

Power Vacuum

The scandal has stained the Communist Party's promises to build a "harmonious" society with better rights and income for hundreds of millions of poor farmers.

A senior official in the Party-run All China Federation of Trade Unions told a news conference on Monday that he was "outraged and shocked."

"It's absolutely impermissible for this sort of thing to happen in our socialist country," union official Zhang Mingqi said, according to a transcript of the news conference on the government Web site (www.gov.cn).

Police have detained 168 people accused of involvement in the exploitation. The government has sent a team to investigate the abuses and given freed workers 1,000 yuan ($130) each as "sympathy" money, the Beijing News said.

But many reports have dwelt on local government complicity in the abuses. One of the kiln owners detained, Wang Bingbing, was the son of the village Party secretary. And critics say the trade could not have survived without official collusion.

"The dereliction of local government departments and even collusion between officials and criminals is plain to see," said one local newspaper commentary reproduced on the Web site of the People's Daily (www.people.com.cn).

The People's Daily itself said the scandal called for "thorough reflection".

"Otherwise, we will have no way of facing up to the word 'harmony'," it said in a commentary.

The exploitation highlighted the disintegration of local government in the countryside, said some.

"The state's control over the countryside and farmers has weakened," said the Guangzhou Daily. "In some towns and villages a power vacuum has emerged and criminal forces have seized the opportunity to flourish and dominate."

($1=7.624 Yuan)



Top China News  
Today's Top News  
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
吴旗县| 昌平区| 乐陵市| 九龙县| 保山市| 金堂县| 清丰县| 东乌珠穆沁旗| 布尔津县| 新晃| 新建县| 静乐县| 乐安县| 永福县| 珲春市| 娄烦县| 莱阳市| 陈巴尔虎旗| 仪征市| 民和| 仁布县| 吉木萨尔县| 辽宁省| 信丰县| 介休市| 凤庆县| 海兴县| 青田县| 荣成市| 洞口县| 白水县| 枣强县| 收藏| 德昌县| 南乐县| 澄江县| 礼泉县| 名山县| 邛崃市| 金华市| 车险|