Who Will Save Our Children?
-- Four hundred fathers who have lost their children shed tears of
blood begging for help
We are the fathers of those unfortunate children who were tricked and
taken to Shanxi brick factories for hard labor. Our children, because
of their young age and inexperience in the world, because they were
alone at the Zhengzhou train station, at a bus stop, under an overpass,
or on the side of the road, were tricked or forced to get in a car and
then taken and sold for the price of 500 Renminbi (note: about $60 USA
dollars) to the Shanxi brick factory for hard labor. Since our children
went missing, we set down our lives and left our homes to search all
over for our children.
After a very difficult time of searching with no news, we finally
obtained accurate information. Our children were sold by human
traffickers to become slaves at a Shanxi brick factory. Disregarding
our personal safety, we snuck into these places a number of times, we
even dressed up as workers to go under cover, finally we learned that
Linfen City, and Yongji city of Shanxi Province were where the brick
factories were most concentrated.
Although we had imagined countless times the danger our children faced,
but when we actually walked into the mountain gully, and passed through
the rows of surrounding walls and saw the unfortunate children, we were
still shocked by what we beheld: they were forced to work with both
hands and feet, some of the children had long hair like primitive men
and had not had contact with the outside world for seven years. Those
who had attempted to escape were crippled from beatings, but this was
nothing considering that some children had even had their backs branded
with burning hot bricks by supervisors to the point of being badly
mutilated. Some have been in the hospital for several months now after
being rescued and still have not recovered. Everyday they worked more
than fourteen hours and were still not properly fed. Sometimes because
they were overly weary they would fool off, then the supervisor would
pick up a brick and smash them over the head until their heads were
cracked and bleeding. Then they would wrap up the wound with some rags
and force them to continue to work. They would be struck and kicked,
and were routinely beaten with a club; furthermore some children were
struck until they were seriously injured, yet they would not receive
treatment, they could only treat themselves at the brick factory. If
they could not heal themselves or the wounds got worse, if they were
nearing death the black-hearted supervisor and factory owner would take
these workers and bury them alive. Because these children had not
bathed for a long time they had developed severe skin diseases. The
youngest was only eight years old. In order to receive a full meal he
was very obedient, every day doing heavy labor that would be difficult
even for an adult. Their personal freedom was restricted, in all
weather there was a supervisor or thug standing guard.
Seeing pair by pair their fear-stricken and helpless eyes wrenched our
hearts. Every person with a conscience, upon seeing such a situation
would want to rescue all of them. But we were alone and weak, our
forces too limited, we had few options. it was likely we would only
able to save our own child from Henan Province. We were guilt-stricken
that we would be unable to change the fates of those children from
Hubei, Sichuan and other provinces. Through our concerted efforts we
were able to rescue more than forty children who had ended up in this
hellhole. They were the reunited with their parents. Furthermore, when
we showed them photos of our children they gave us encouraging news
that some of our children had been their fellow workers. But because
there are many people looking for their children the cruel brick
factory owner was extremely vigilant; if there were even a slight rumor
he would secretly transfer them to another brick factory. This made the
search for our children even more difficult.
Upon rescuing a child we would find his body covered with scars, making
us cry every time. We did not know what sort of horrible experience
these tender lives had been through -- even less did we know what
danger our own children were facing at this moment. We are fathers, we
must save our children, but in this gorge, in this unfamiliar region,
the factory owners learned of our search and that made our effort even
more challenging.
We are too few, at any time our children face life-threatening danger.
We had no choice but to ask the government for help. We covered Shanxi
countryside, county, and municipal police offices, as well as the labor
department. But we were only disappointed; not only did the police
ignore and brush aside our claim they even sought every means to
prevent us from taking with us the children we already freed.
Furthermore, when the owner of the brick factory intimidated us the
police took no action. The head of the county public security bureau,
at the urging of his superiors, said to us that the children went
missing in Henan, the owner of the forced labor factories is also from
Henan. You ought to return to Henan to report this case to the police
there, as long as the Henan police step forward on this case we will
cooperate completely. We were left with no choice but to wearily make
our way back to Henan. But then in Henan the police expressed that they
were willing to help us but unable; they explained that our children
had only been illegally compelled into labor, it was not a homicide
case and so it did not qualify for a police follow-up; furthermore,
according to the law the crime is located in Shanxi, so the Shanxi
police ought to rescue the children.
In addition, according to our information, the leading suspect in the
abduction, Yang, who crippled some of the children, has already been
detained by the Shanxi police. Yet, the Shanxi police said that there
was not enough evidence for a case. It is obvious that this is an
organized criminal gang. Every day they collect targets, from Zhengzhou
and other areas they use all sorts of methods to haul people to the
Shanxi brick factory. Presently at the Shanxi brick factory there are
more than one thousand children, among them there are more than four
hundred from Henan. If this crime is not stopped then every day
somebody will go missing and this will severely impact the stability of
society.
As we walked out the main entrance of the public security bureau our
hearts were heavy. In this a matter of life and death for an
underprivileged group, we have been able to overcome difficulties and
obstacles to search for clues, but because the public security offices
pass off responsibility we could not continue our search for our
children. In this society that everyone calls a harmonious system,
where is there respect for life? How much longer must we walk on this
long path searching for our children? During this uncertain search some
children＇s parents passed away filled with sadness, some had nervous
breakdowns. We are blood relatives of these children, no matter how
difficult, we will not give up. But what of our children, those
vulnerable lives who need our protection, how much longer can they hold
out under such devastating circumstances?
We cannot waste any time with the safety of our children uncertain, who
will save our children? After two different provincial governments
rejected responsibility, where should we turn for help? In such an
urgent matter of life and death, who will help us?
-- Signed by more than four hundred fathers who have lost their children
(The Wei Jingsheng Foundation is responsible for the translation of
this English version.)
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