China observed a day of national mourning on Wednesday for victims of its killer quake, with newspaper front pages bathed in black and flags lowered to half-mast around the country.
Top leaders and thousands of other people paid a silent tribute to the victims of the 6,9 magnitude earthquake which struck a remote area of north-western China a week ago, leaving at least 2 064 people dead.
Another 175 people are still missing and more than 12 000 injured after the quake flattened thousands of mainly mud brick and wood homes in the Yushu region of Qinghai province, a rugged area populated by ethnic Tibetans.
The whole of Qinghai held three minutes of silence at 1000am loca time (2am GMT), while state television showed Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top leaders in Beijing bowing their heads in silent tribute to victims.
“Please be silent for our compatriots who died in the Qinghai Yushu quake,” said a sombre-looking Hu, surrounded by eight other leaders.
In Jiegu, the main town in the disaster zone, officials and rescuers stood silently among the ruins as Chinese flags planted in the rubble fluttered in the wind, state television showed.
And in the main square of Qinghai’s capital Xining, thousands of military personnel, officials, students and citizens mostly clad in black stood in rows, their heads bowed under a light snowfall as sirens and car horns blared.
Throughout the country, the government and its propaganda organs seized on the disaster in a Tibetan region with a restive history to grieve while stressing national unity.
“In solidarity with the people,” read a front-page headline in the People’s Daily, the ruling Communist Party’s mouthpiece.
Aid and relief personnel have poured into the disaster area on the Tibetan plateau at an altitude of about 4 000m, after delays that officials blamed on its remote location.
Weather hampers relief
Rescuers are still sifting through rubble in Jiegu, but snow and hail have hindered relief efforts and slowed delivery of badly needed supplies, while altitude sickness also hit many of the rescuers.
China’s state meteorological agency forecast intermittent rain and snow in coming days and night temperatures dipping to near-freezing.
On state television, grim-faced anchors delivered emotional tributes to the victims as they devoted all coverage to the day of mourning.
“Yushu, your suffering is our suffering. Your mourning is our mourning,” a woman anchor intoned.
In central Beijing, authorities lowered the national flag to half-mast at Tiananmen Square, and flags were also to be lowered at Chinese embassies and consulates worldwide.
All major state-run newspapers and their online versions carried blackened mastheads while the websites of some government departments were also stripped of colour.
Entertainment activities have been ordered suspended, shutting down movie theatres, professional football matches, some television programmes and activity related to the Shanghai Expo 2010 opening next month, media reports said.
Foreign entertainment-related television channels such as HBO and ESPN had their programmes blocked in China, replaced by a notice on a black background saying it was due to quake mourning.
International news channels such as CNN and the BBC remained unblocked.
Two Tibetan women and a four-year-old girl were pulled out of the rubble on Monday, more than five days after the quake.
State television said Tuesday workers had found signs of life in the ruins, but no rescues were reported. Disaster experts say the odds of finding more survivors drop off sharply after the first three days. – AFP