Government and Policy

Thousands mourn for martyrs

By Li Xiaokun (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-21 08:21

State leaders, ordinary people say goodbye to peacekeepers

<FONT color=black>Thousands mourn for martyrs</FONT>

An armed policeman holding a portrait of Li Qin, one of eight Chinese peacekeepers killed in the recent Haiti earthquake, cries at a funeral held at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing yesterday. Reuters

When Dong Shi arrived at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery early yesterday morning, he was surprised to find crowds of ordinary Beijing citizens already waiting in the chilly wind, joining him in bidding farewell to his college classmate Zhu Xiaoping and seven other Chinese peacekeeping police killed in Haiti's earthquake.

And he never thought all nine top leaders of the Communist Party of China would join them to mourn the biggest loss of life in Beijing's participation in United Nations' missions.

"This is indeed a solemn farewell, and Xiaoping deserves it," said Dong, director of the legal training center for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan under the Ministry of Justice.

The ceremony in the cemetery in western Beijing, where leading officials and distinguished people are interred, was broadcast live on national television.

All in dark suits with white flowers pinned in the their lapels, President Hu Jintao, top legislator Wu Bangguo, Premier Wen Jiabao, and six other members of the political bureau of the standing committee of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, stood in silent tribute and bowed three times toward the coffins.

They circled the flag-draped coffins to the strains of a funeral march before paying their respects to family members.

They were followed by other State leaders and thousands of uniformed police and military officers.

Outside the ceremony hall, tens of thousands of people stood in long lines, waiting to pay tribute to the peacekeepers. The lines stretched one km from the hall to the entrance of the cemetery.

Nearly 40 primary school classmates of Zhu Xiaoping, who was born in Shanghai and was director of the equipment bureau of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), came to Beijing from around the world to accompany their former teacher and see Zhu off.

The teacher, Song Wenrong, in her 70s, kept weeping and almost could not walk.

"We'll take the ashes of our old monitor back to school after the ceremony," a classmate said.

And more than 100 former colleagues of Wang Shulin, a researcher with the MPS and one of the eight heroes, came from around the nation to pay their last respects to Wang, with whom they had lived and worked together in northeastern Heilongjiang province in the late 1960s.

They held banners of mourning to wish Wang "a safe journey". Tears covered the faces of many female colleagues.

Wei Huansheng, who was waiting in line with his wife, said he did not know any of the eight. "But I think they deserve our respect," said Wei, in his 60s. Several students from Haiti who are studying at a college in Beijing also came with flowers.

A clerk of the cemetery, who declined to be named, said yesterday's ceremony was the highest-level one ever held there. He said the staff spent nearly 30 hours to decorate the coffins with about 20,000 white chrysanthemums.

At sina.com.cn, a leading Chinese Internet portal, more than 1.4 million people offered virtual wreaths in an online tribute.

"It's a high-level farewell, not just because among the deceased are the highest-level Chinese officials to die at their posts abroad in recent years. It also aims to tell the world China is a responsible country," Hong Kong-based Ming Pao Daily said.

Khalid Malik, UN resident coordinator and UNDP resident representative in China, also attended the ceremony.

"I think it is very important for the Chinese leadership to have acknowledged the importance of the contribution they (the police) have made We share that loss. I think it is important not only for China, but also important for the UN, to memorialize them," he told China Daily.

About 125 Chinese police were in Haiti as part of a 9,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission when the quake struck.

Of the eight who died, aged 35 to 60, four were members of the peacekeeping contingent and the other four were part of a delegation from the MPS.

They were in a meeting with the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, when the 7.0-magnitude quake toppled the UN headquarters building last week. Their bodies were pulled from the rubble over the weekend by a Chinese rescue team and carried back to Beijing on Tuesday.

The eight have been declared revolutionary martyrs, an honor that confers additional financial benefits as well as employment and educational assistance to their families.

In recent years, China has attached increasing weight to UN peacekeeping work, contributing 14,000 officers to 24 separate missions.