Police in southwest China have detained 10 parents who were protesting the deaths of their children in schools that collapsed in the country's devastating earthquake, a U.S.-funded radio station reported Wednesday.
Radio Free Asia said the 10 were detained after several hundred parents staged a sit-in Tuesday outside government offices in Deyang city. They were calling on the government to release the findings of a promised investigation into the collapse of schools in the May 12 earthquake, which decimated southwest Sichuan province, killing nearly 70,000 people.
The collapse of large numbers of schools in the quake has angered parents, many of whom lost their only child, and has led to rare protests at a time when government is trying to suppress expressions of public discontent ahead of next month's Olympic Games in Beijing.
The Ministry of Education has promised to rebuild the schools, but no one involved in the alleged shoddy construction has been held to public account.
Parents across the province have vowed to take legal action against the government, RFA said. But those protesting in Deyang were asked to sign a document saying they would not sue the local government for the shoddy construction of the school buildings, the report said.
A parent from Luoshui township outside Deyang who lost her 9-year-old son in the earthquake and would only identify herself as Li said 10 parents from Mianzhu, near Deyang, were detained for refusing to sign the agreement.
It was not clear if it was the same 10 parents as in the RFA report.
Li said that the government asked parents to sign an agreement to accept a "special" payment of 60,000 yuan (US$8,800) per household. They were also promised life insurance policies worth 38,000 yuan (US$5,500) per person, she said.
An official with the Deyang government's general administrative office said no protest took place Tuesday. He said the government was trying to help grieving families by donating money to them, but there were no formal plans for compensation. He refused to give his full name, as is common among Chinese bureaucrats, and identified himself only as Mr. Li.
A man with the Deyang Communist Party propaganda office, who also would not give his name, said no protest took place and the results of the investigation into the school construction have not been released.
About 1,000 parents from five towns around nearby Shifang city also protested Tuesday after the government proposed handing out 100,000 yuan (US$14,700) per household if parents agreed not to sue the government, RFA reported.
"If we took the money, we then would not be able to call the collapsed school buildings 'shoddy construction.' All the parents refused to sign the agreement," one father surnamed Lei was quoted as saying.
