Families reunite after quake
2008-05-30 17:31
Chengdudu - More children separated from their parents by China's earthquake have been reunited with their families, state media reported on Friday.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the number of unclaimed children in Sichuan province has fallen to about 1 000 from more than 8 000 in the first few days after the May 12 earthquake.
The confirmed death toll from China's worst quake in three decades is more than 68 500, with 19 350 others still missing, according to the government. But in the chaos after the magnitude 7.9 earthquake, which made five million homeless, many survivors were separated from their families.
The large number of apparent orphans also meant the government has been overwhelmed with requests from families seeking to adopt them.
"Our department had to answer up to 2 000 calls from around the country every day asking to adopt orphans," Ye Lu, director of social welfare at the Sichuan provincial civil affairs department, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
Also on Friday, government officials in Tokyo said Japan would not use military planes to deliver relief goods to China after Beijing voiced uneasiness over the idea.
Beijing had been in talks with Tokyo about using Japanese military planes to deliver aid, which could have become the first significant military dispatch between the two nations since World War 2.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Tokyo would not insist on using the military.
Japan invaded China and conquered large parts of it in the 1930s before being defeated by the Allies in 1945, and many Chinese still strongly resent Japan for its military aggression.
China's military was still working in the northern part of Sichuan to drain the Tangjiashan lake, which formed above Beichuan town after a quake-triggered landslide blocked a river.
There are worries it could burst unless water is drained away. The soldiers were using 40 heavy earth-moving machines to dig drainage channels. Officials quoted in state media have not said how long the work would take.
About 158 000 people living downstream from Tangjiashan lake have been evacuated, and officials have pledged to warn nearby residents in case of flooding so they have time to flee. Troops have sealed off Beichuan to the public.
- AP