Murdered children; Chinese police to monitor schools. Self-criticism of Wen Jiabao
Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Extraordinary security measures with the police and armed guards to monitor every school and asylum, with orders to shoot to kill. The government is attempting to curb the wave of brutal murders against children in schools. But it is also questioning itself about the reasons for the attacks.
Wu Heping, spokesman for the Minister for Public Security, yesterday admitted that the police can not protect schools, hit by six murderous attacks in 2 months with 17 deaths and about 70 wounded. He however assured that safety will be enhanced at all schools, even in remote villages and with shoot to kill orders against attackers.
The Beijing government has ordered police to guard all institutions and has also hired private guards. The municipality of Shenzhen has ordered schools to hire private security guards and install surveillance cameras linked to police stations.
There is growing fear and in Guangzhou parents are enrolling their children in martial arts schools and giving them cans of pepper spray.
In addition to strengthening security, the central authorities are also conducting a stringent self-criticism. They recognize that this situation is also the result of the exasperated state that many people have been reduced to by an ultra-competitive and unfair society, with widespread corruption and indifferent authorities. Reflecting on the recent murders, Wu blamed regional authorities for not having listened to complaints and petitions of citizens and of not addressing social problems, leading many people to extreme measures to protest against society.
On May 13, Premier Wen Jiabao said on television that the attacks are the result of entrenched social problems that local authorities have neglected. So that the problem is intensified from" a civil dispute in a criminal case, or an ordinary criminal case into a malignant crime involving violent and extreme measures." Therefore, in addition to enhancing security, “must " we should dig deeper and look for the root reasons for the problems" which "include a certain level of social tension".
The recent attackers were people between 30 and 40, usually without major mental problems, with personal or work related problems: among them were three farmers, a teacher, an unemployed worker, a former doctor jilted by his girlfriend. They massacred defenceless children who they did not know, with butcher knives and hammers.
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