XINING, China (AFP) – China declared a national day of mourning for victims of last week's earthquake as rescuers battled altitude sicknessand bad weather conditions in the Tibetan disaster zone Tuesday.
The government said the nation would be in mourning on Wednesday with flags around the country and at embassies and consulatesworldwide flown at half-mast a week after the 6.9-magnitude quake hit a remote corner of Qinghai province.
The death toll from the earthquake in northwestern China stands at 2,046 people, with 193 more missing, according to state media. Another 12,000 people have been injured and tens of thousands left homeless.
The government however refused to comment Tuesday on a request by the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, to be allowed to visit the quake zone in the province where he was born.
The Dalai Lama had appealed to Beijing on Saturday to allow him into China for the first time in 51 years to visit the quake-hit area to "fulfil the wishes of many of the people there."
However, foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu declined to answer when asked twice at a briefing whether the wish would be granted.
Many Tibetans in the area had expressed hope he would be allowed in, but the request looks unlikely to be granted by China, which tightly controls its restive Tibetan regions and vilifies the Dalai Lama as a "separatist".
Rescuers continued to sift through collapsed buildings in the town of Jiegu -- the disaster zone's main population centre -- as they were battered by hailstones, residents and press reports said.
Authorities warned that snow and plummeting temperatures would hit the region Tuesday, adding to the difficulties of devastated survivors camping outside after thousands of their mudbrick-and-wood homes collapsed.
"We estimate that in the next few days, the rain, snow and low temperatures will harm relief work and (those working in) transport, medicine and health should strengthen their guard," the National Meteorological Centre said.
Temperatures could sink to as low as minus four degrees Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit, the national weather centre said.
More than 12,700 soldiers and paramilitary police were now taking part in rescue work, PLA Major General Wang Zhenguo told reporters in Beijing.
Monks in maroon and saffron robes also continued to sift through the rubble, amid hopes of finding more survivors after three miracle rescues on Monday.
Two Tibetan women and a four-year-old girl were pulled out of the rubble on Monday, more than five days after the quake struck.
The rugged region sits at an elevation of around 4,000 metres (over 13,000 feet), which government officials have blamed for hindering the relief effort.
"The greatest difficulty is the high-altitude sickness suffered by officers and soldiers," said the PLA's Wang, who added nearly all military personnel in the quake zone had suffered at least mild reactions to the altitude.
Altitude sickness, caused by low oxygen levels at high elevations, can cause symptoms including nausea, vomiting, weakness and insomnia.
The area, which borders on Tibet, is part of the traditional Tibetan homeland and more than 90 percent of its people are from the ethnic minority.
Authorities have said language problems have also complicated rescue efforts as Mandarin-speaking relief workers have had trouble communicating with Tibetan-speaking locals.
However, inspiring stories of heroism and survival trickled from the region.
At the Number One Minorities Middle School, all 830 students and teachers were saved when the deputy principal felt a small tremour hours before the quake and evacuated everyone from their dorms, the China Youth Daily said.
And a 16-year-old Tibetan girl dug out nine members of her family alive with her bare hands after the quake struck, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Local authorities have now started to focus on post-quake recovery, including tallying the number of orphaned children, with many families nationwide already inquiring about adoptions, press reports said.
The government also has said it planned to redevelop the disaster zone into an eco-tourism site, according to state press reports.
Courtesy of news.yahoo.com and afp.com
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