Slave-labor boss detained amid national shock
(Agencies/chinadaily.com.cn)Updated: 2007-06-17 16:19
Yang began the Herculean task of visiting the more than 100 kilns in Shanxi in early April. But she couldn't see her son. Instead, what she saw was horrifying. "In most of the kilns, children were being forced to work beyond their physical capacity. Some children were still in their school uniforms. When they could not carry on with the inhuman task of pushing massive carts full of bricks anymore, they were whipped by the taskmasters," she says. Many children had wounds on their feet and around their waist.
Yang tried to save some of the boys who secretly begged her to take them away. But the kiln owners told her she dared not try it if she wanted to leave the place safe and sound.
She then pleaded with the local government to help rescue the children, but received little help. That's when the parents sought the media's help last month. After the expose, police raided the Caosheng Village kiln in Hongtong and freed 31 workers, with the youngest being 14.
But much before the police launched the operation, a greater tragedy had already struck. A worker named Liu Bao died after being hit with a shovel in November and was buried without proper documentation. Police have detained kiln foreman Heng Tinghan, owner Wang Bingbing and three of his hired hoodlums.
Even with the rescue operation in progress, many parents fear, as Yang says, that their children might have been shifted to other provinces or hidden in remote mountainous areas to avoid detection. "We saw at least 200 to 300 child laborers, but only about 50 have been freed," Yang says. "Where are the others?"
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