Torch relay bittersweet for China quake survivors

DUJIANGYAN, China (Reuters) - The capital of China's earthquake-ravaged province of Sichuan will welcome the Olympic torch on Tuesday, but for thousands still mourning lost relatives and lost homes, the relay's arrival is bittersweet.

Since the quake devastated the region on May 12, killing at least 70,000, the government changed the relay route to move through Sichuan, making it the last stop before the torch reaches Beijing and taking affected cities off the route.

But for those in Dujiangyan, where thousands died and scores more were left homeless, their missing out on a torch relay that was originally to pass through their small city is just another misfortune brought on by the disaster.

"I think no matter whether the quake has impacted us, the torch should still come here," said 23-year-old He Yan. "It was a very rare opportunity for us."

Nearly three months on, she is still homeless and makes a living selling clothes in a tent city that survivors have transformed into a makeshift market.

Still, she considers herself lucky. In her building, 13 of her neighbors died but she managed to escape unscathed.

If residents had been ready to welcome the flame despite the rubble-strewn streets there is still much to leave China's Communist authorities wary of welcoming a crowd.

SCHOOL COLLAPSE

The site of the Xinjian Primary School, where hundreds of children died in the magnitude 7.9 quake, has been blocked off by authorities and the debris cleared.

But a van full of security personnel sits nearby, testament to the ongoing sensitivity of the issue of collapsed schools.

Visiting reporters were chased from a nearby camp for displaced residents who said the government had warned them to be wary of talking to journalists.

Several parents from the school said it was "not convenient" for them to talk, perhaps code for too risky or not permitted.

NO REDRESS

For many who lost children though, using the Olympic flame to stage a protest or make a point to the government was the farthest thing from their minds.

Li Furong, whose 16-year-old niece was killed in a school collapse in the nearby village of Xiang'e, said her elder brother had given up hope of petitioning the government over school buildings many residents maintain were poorly built.

"Of course he still thinks of his child. In the evenings when he's alone, he cries in secret. But he thinks there's no way of seeking redress," Li, 37, said of her brother.

But she added: "He's still supporting the Olympics. The kids were all so happy about it."

When the torch arrives in Sichuan's capital Chengdu Tuesday, it will be its last stop before Beijing, where the cauldron will be lit at the opening of the Games on August 8.

That will mark the end of a protest-harried overseas journey, where the relay was dogged by protests against China's crackdown on unrest in Tibet, which provoked a show of Chinese patriotism with retaliatory rallies at home and abroad.

By contrast, the tour of the Olympic flame through China has been relatively trouble-free, though it was accompanied by huge security lockdowns in the restive far-western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.

(For more stories visit our multimedia website "Road to Beijing" here; and see our blog at blogs.reuters.com/china)