By Chen Jieren (陈杰人)
Economic Observer Online
Nov.19, 2011
Translated by Zhu Na
Original article: [Chinese]
When an 80-year-old woman was burnt to death earlier this month, media reported that she had set herself on fire rather than allow the forced demolition of her house, but two weeks later the local Henan propaganda department announced that she was the victim of an accidental blaze.
What were the officials doing for a fortnight?
I noticed that after the fire, the old woman’s family was unable to find her corpse. That’s unusual.
Right now, it’s hard to reach firm conclusions, but we can be sure of two points. Firstly, on the cause of the death, either the family or the officials are lying. Secondly, the family is alleging that the local government forcibly demolished the woman’s house.
From those two points, it follows that the local government isn’t the right body to conduct an investigation, That responsibility should fall to other organs, most importantly the procuratorate (检察院).
Unfortunately, there’s no sign that the procuratorate in Zhengzhou, where the woman lived, had any role in the investigation. They seem to have neglected their duty.
Their silence over the past two weeks is typical of procuratorates across the nation, who have stood back from investigating and punishing crimes.
Immediately after the Wenzhou train accident in July, for example, the procuratorate held off at all levels, until public pressure left it with little option but to join the investigation panel. To date, we still haven’t seen any independent investigation, which is a complete violation of constitution’s principle of independent prosecutorial power and law.
In fact, in almost event incident concerning people’s safety and property – from the Yihuang (宜黄) self-immolation to the Shishou (石首) incident – the procuratorate initially stood back.
Only when the procuratorate actively assumes its obligation to investigate crimes, will we be able to protect people’s civil rights and frighten those who abuse public power.
