Tianjin, government " those responsible for the disaster will be held to account"
Tianjin (AsiaNews) - The Chinese central government is not going to protect those responsible for the devastating explosion took place on August 12 in Tianjin, and will do everything to bring the perpetrators to justice. This is according to an editorial in today's People's Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper. In the text, the author points out that "It is groundless to doubt that any officials would be protected. [The central government] has pursued Zhou Yongkang, Xu Caihou, Guo Boxiong and Ling Jihua. Why should [the government] cover up anything over a safety accident? ". The reference is to two former high Communist leaders, now in jail.
The article is aimed at reassuring the population, which instead fears investigations will be driven by politics. However, the editorial admits that it will take time before reaching any conclusions: "Rescuers, journalists and chemical experts all admit that the situation at the blast site is highly complicated. Burning and explosions tend to destroy the clues for investigation making it extremely difficult to find the cause of the explosion and the investigation could take a very long time".
Meanwhile the death toll continues to rise. Of the 114 officially dead, 54 have been identified: among these there are 16 firefighters of the Ministry of Public Security, 23 private firefighters hired by port and five police officers. 70 people are still missing: 56 state firefighters and eight private firefighters. Some 700 people are in hospital with injuries.
There is also a maximum alert for possible air poisoning. The 700 tons of cyanide salts kept in wooden boxes, and stacked in containers may have been partially dissolved in the environment due to the explosion. The population of Tianjin wonders why permission was granted for the storage of such dangerous materials near the city. The company Ruihai Logistics, the owner of the warehouse that originally exploded, has the right to hold containers of cyanide - used in mining to extract gold - for at least 40 days.
Another aspect of the tragedy concerns 50 other people, the owners of the houses that stood near the site of the explosion and saw their walls collapse or be damaged. This morning they summoned journalists to a press conference and to "seek the truth". Some of them had signs that read: "We love the Party [Communist government in China ed] and the government, please buy our apartments."
Some of the demonstrators intend to sue the owners of the exploded warehouse. Wu Jun told the South China Morning Post: "The government says repair the apartments. How?. "We can’t live there anymore. God knows what will happen next: the air, the safety. And no one wants to rent this property anymore ." The government has proposed a compensation of 2 thousand yuan (about 200 euro) per month for three months, but so far no one has accepted for fear of missing out on future more substantial damages.
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