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Grief and anger

• James Reynolds
• 1 Jun 08, 03:20 PM GMT

One huge issue has emerged in the aftermath of the earthquake - why did school buildings collapse, when other buildings next to them stayed standing? Put simply - did so many school children have to die?

Official figures say that more than 4,000 pupils died at school when the earthquake happened. Many of their parents are angry - they believe their children died because their schools were badly built. In recent days, we've heard of parents in many areas getting together to campaign for justice.

I've just spent a couple of days looking into the story of the Xinjian primary school in Dujiangyan.

This morning my colleagues and I went along to a memorial service organised by bereaved parents at the remains of the school (the parents invited reporters to attend). I've never seen anything approaching the grief I witnessed during this service - and that includes the first few days after the earthquake.

Hundreds of parents stood and cried and sobbed. Many collapsed.

The Chinese state faces huge challenges in the months ahead - it has to make sure that lakes formed by the earthquake don't burst their banks and flood cities and towns. It has to build new homes for more than five million people.

But it's possible that its biggest test may be this: how does the government address the anger of parents who believe that their children were killed not by natural disaster, but by man-made negligence and corruption?

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