5 Chinese Boys Trying to Escape Cold Found Dead in Dumpster

[Sun Wukong]

5 Chinese Boys Trying to Escape Cold Found Dead in Dumpster

by Peter Barefoot on Tuesday, November 20, 2012

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From NetEase:
5 Homeless Boys in Guizhou Bijie Suspected Suffocating to Death After Hiding in Dumpster to Escape the Cold

[...]
According to Beijing News, on the morning of the 16th, 5 unidentified boys were found dead in a dumpster in the urban area of Guizhou Province Bijie City. Guizhou police have begun investigations. As of when this news was released last night [November 17], authorities still haven’t revealed the identities or the cause of death for the deceased. According to preliminary analyses, the 5 children may have died of “suffocation” after hiding in the dumpster to escape the cold. According to an official of the Bijie Propaganda Department, the person who first found the 5 deceased is an old scavenger woman. The incident happened on the Huandong Road sidewalk in Bijie City’s Qixingguan District, which is less than 100 meters away from the Liucangqiao [sub-district] Office.

According to the photos posted by netizens, the dumpster in which the incident happened has a green base with a white lid, is about a man’s height, length about 1.5 meters, and the width about 1.3 meters, the white lid capable of sealing the opening. This reporter learned from the Bijie Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department that the 5 deceased boys were of different ages, but were all around 10 years old. A relevant person involved indicate that because the police is currently getting in touch with the Education Department and family members [of the deceased], the specific identities of the deceased are still unknown right now, as well as why they were in the trashcan.

The official of the Propaganda Department mentioned above also revealed that the bodies of the deceased have already been sent to Bijie City morgue. An investigation group assembled together by police from both the province and the city has begun the investigation. According to the preliminary information at hand, the possibility of a homicide has been ruled out.

According to a description by a witness who has been to the scene, next to the dumpster in which the incident happened is a demolition site. “These Children built a shed by the demolition site’s surrounding wall, using some plastic tarpaulins with advertisements printed on them, cement bricks, and three-ply boards, and had lived in it for days”.
Nearby residents say they saw some children find an old ball from within the dumpster, playing with it within the enclosed wall.

According to a preliminary analysis, the 5 children may have “suffocated to death” hiding in the dumpster to escape the cold. The specific cause of death is expected to be made public by the police within days. Bijie City is located in the northwest of Guizhou Province, where there are many mountains, and is about 200 kilometers from the provincial capital Guiyang City. On November 15, the lowest air temperature was 6℃ [43℉], and it had drizzled during that night that day.

 

[Joe Higashi]

Arrested for reporting on boys' rubbish bin deaths
Date November 25, 2012

Online … the rubbish bin in which it is believed five young brothers died photographed by the detained former journalist Li Yuanlong. Photo: AP

A FORMER journalist and his wife have been detained by security officers in China after he wrote online last week about five boys in Guizhou province who had died in a rubbish bin after taking shelter there from the cold, a lawyer and friend of the man says.

The lawyer, Li Fangping, based in Beijing, said Li Yuanlong was picked up by security officers on Wednesday. The two men spoke by phone while Li Yuanlong was being driven along a highway to a ''resort'' in Guizhou, the lawyer said on Thursday. A friend of the former journalist who edits an online publication said Mr Li's wife had also been taken.

Mr Li had been sent ''on vacation'', according to authorities in Bijie, the town where the boys died. But his son told the South China Morning Post he had been put on a plane to a tourist destination against his will.

''My father told me he received several phone calls before he was taken away from home,'' Li Muzi said from the US, where he is studying.

''Apparently they are trying to prevent him from helping other reporters follow up on the incident.''

The Bijie propaganda office denied the allegation, pointing to a note posted from Mr Li's bulletin board account that said he was simply attending to urgent business.

Mr Li, 52, had been a reporter for Bijie Daily for eight years, but was imprisoned for two years in 2005 for writing too many ''negative'' stories about Bijie, the lawyer said. He had been unemployed since his release from prison.

Late last week Mr Li posted photographs and wrote about the deaths in Bijie of the five boys, who were all related and ranged in age from nine to 13. The bodies were discovered on November 16.

The police said the boys appeared to have died of carbon monoxide poisoning after they started a fire with charcoal inside the bin to warm themselves.

Mr Li's postings triggered outrage on the internet in China. Web users asked scathing questions about how the local government, teachers, family members and society in general could have allowed the boys to end up in such a predicament.

Official news organisations, including Xinhua, the state news agency, ran reports on the deaths