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Tunnel collapse causes concern
02/04/2007 13:36 - (SA)
Charles Whelan
Beijing - A cover-up over the deaths of at least five workers who were building a subway ahead of the Beijing Olympics has renewed questions about transparency in China's preparations for the Games.
State media said on Monday five bodies had been recovered from the construction site of the new Beijing subway line and that the body of a sixth worker trapped under tons of debris was still being sought.
The workers were killed following a still unexplained collapse on Wednesday, the day after Beijing held city-wide celebrations marking the 500-day countdown to the Olympics.
The workers were building the city's number 10 subway line, which will connect to a separate line running directly to the Olympic Village north of Beijing when it is finished in 2008.
The state-run construction company working on the subway line waited at least eight hours before notifying authorities of the accident in an attempt at a cover up, according to Beijing authorities.
In a circular to other contractors working on the expansion of Beijing's subway system ahead of the games, Beijing's municipal construction committee said that the cover-up had angered the public.
Still no details about collapse
"After the accident the construction company covered it up, which created an extremely bad social impact," said the circular, seen on the committee's website.
However, five days after the incident, the Beijing city government had yet to provide information to the public about how the collapse had occurred.
The Beijing Olympic organising committee declined to comment on the tunnel collapse, saying construction of the subway line was an infrastructure project run by the city government and not directly related to the Games.
The city government's spokesperson's office declined to answer questions on the collapse or give details about the cover-up.
Last year Olympic organisers faced another public relations battle following the sacking of the Beijing's deputy mayor in charge of overseeing those construction projects, Liu Zhihua, on charges of corruption.
'Ensure an honest Games'
"We must sound the alarm bells and learn lessons from this," said Liu Qi, Olympic organising committee president, about the sacking.
"We must tighten auditing and monitoring of the preparatory work of the Olympics to prevent all potential (corruption) problems and ensure an honest Games."
The tunnel collapse cover-up showed much more needed to be done, said Robert Broadfoot, head of Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, which advises corporations on investment in Asian countries.
He said: "Right since the very beginning, you have had precious little transparency attached to the Beijing Olympics.
"The cover-up of the tunnel collapse is not a surprise given that history."
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