No answers for parents bereaved by earthquake

WUFU, China - About 150 parents gathered yesterday at the ruins of Fuxin No. 2 Primary School, hoping to learn why the building collapsed in last month's earthquake, killing their sons and daughters.

They left with nothing: The results, officials said, were just not ready.

The parents said local officials had promised to give them the details on why the school crumbled in the May 12 quake. They accused the government of stalling.

"We are not satisfied with the government. They are playing for time," said Huang Zaojun, whose 11-year-old son was among 270 students authorities say died when the three-story school collapsed.

Hong Kong Cable TV quoted parents as saying officials denied in the meeting that they had promised to give details of the investigation. The school was in the town of Wufu, 45 miles north of the provincial capital, Chengdu.

"The government said the experts are still making an evaluation and asked us to wait. They said the result might come out in three or five days, or one or two years," Huang said.

He said parents would ask lawyers to find experts to make a separate evaluation.

Accusations of shoddy school construction have increasingly turned to anger against local authorities in Sichuan province, where more than 69,000 people died.

Parents have protested at numerous schools in the province, calling for explanations of why schools collapsed so easily while nearby buildings were still standing after the 7.9-magnitude quake.

Foreign engineers who inspected collapsed buildings blamed poor construction.

"If the government compels students to be in schools and designs and constructs the schools, then the government has responsibility," said Brian Tucker of GEOHazards International, a nonprofit organization that works for better earthquake-proof buildings.

The United Nations

warned yesterday that it might be forced to ground helicopters that have been ferrying critical aid to Myanmar's cyclone survivors.

The U.N.'s

World Food Program said it was facing a critical shortage of money for its logistical operation in the country, including

10 helicopters that have delivered lifesaving materials to 60 locations in the Irrawaddy delta.

The use of helicopters,

trucks and boats will "grind to a halt by the end of this month unless we get additional funding now," said Chris Kaye, WFP's country director in Myanmar.

The WFP

appealed for $50 million to fund its logistical operation, of which the helicopters are the most expensive part but says it has received pledges and funding to cover just 60 percent.

- Associated Press