China cremates quake dead as hopes of finding survivors fade

JIEGU, China, April 17, 2010 - Buddhist monks cremated hundreds of China earthquake victims amid sanitation fears Saturday as hopes dimmed of finding further survivors among the more than 400 people still missing.

Naked, bloodied and bruised corpses were piled on a massive funeral pyre outside the shattered town of Jiegu on the remote Tibetan plateau and lit by chanting Buddhist monks, three days after the quake killed more than 1,100.

“We have never had a disaster like this. We have never had so many people die. Cremation is the only way to send these souls off,” said Jiemi Zhangsuo, head of the area’s main Buddhist monastery that handled the ceremony.

But the struggle was far from over for the devastated region of Qinghai province, with thousands left homeless and injured as authorities fought to get sufficient relief personnel and aid to the isolated region.

The official death toll of 1,144 looked set to rise with officials saying on Saturday that more than 400 people were still missing and almost 1,200 seriously injured.

In contrast with official figures, monks said they cremated 1,400 people at the ceremony, but AFP could not independently confirm that figure.

More than 11,000 people were injured in Wednesday’s quake, which caused flimsy traditional mud and wood dwellings to collapse.

Infrastructure in Jiegu, the main population centre in the quake-hit region, has been shattered, with the water supply “basically paralysed”, Xia Xueping, spokesman for relief efforts, told a news briefing in the town.

He said all traditional dwellings in the town, home to tens of thousands of people, had fallen while sturdier brick and concrete structures also had either collapsed or suffered heavy damage.

About 13,000 rescue personnel had arrived in the region to aid rescue and recovery efforts but they faced freezing weather and a lack of oxygen due to the altitude of around 4,000 metres (13,000 feet).

At least 200 trained rescuers were forced to leave the area after they began suffering from altitude sickness, state-run Xinhua news agency said Saturday.

At least 1,000 aftershocks also continued to rock the area, including one Saturday morning with a magnitude of 5.1 that was centered about 400 kilometres (250 miles) west of Jiegu, according to the US Geological Survey.

Premier Wen Jiabao wrapped up a two-day tour of the disaster area on Friday by casting recovery efforts as a chance to foster unity in a region whose Buddhist ethnic Tibetans have a history of chafing at Chinese rule.

“We can overcome the disaster and improve national unity in fighting the calamity,” Wen was quoted saying.

-AFP