China quake victims angry, impatient for aid

By Ben Blanchard

XINSHI, China (Reuters) - Desperate and destitute, the people of the quake-hit village of Xinshi in the mountains of southwest China camp under tatty bivouacs in front of ruined homes, grumbling that their government has forsaken them.

Three days after the 7.9 magnitude quake rocked Sichuan province on Monday, killing at least 15,000 people, China has pushed 130,000 troops and paramilitary police into stricken areas to distribute aid and search for survivors amid countless shattered communities.

The massive relief operation, however, has hardly touched Xinshi, though it lies only 30 minutes down a rutted track from a highway on which military convoys carrying supplies thunder towards more hopeless areas.

"We have no money to survive, we couldn't buy anything anyway. What will we do about our children?" complained Zhang Fuyang, standing outside her makeshift shelter cobbled together from plastic sheeting and a basic wooden frame.

"Nobody has told us anything."

Xinshi, a small farming community ringed by sheer, mist-covered mountains, is just one of hundreds of villages reduced to ruin in the valleys of northern Sichuan.

Many remain cut off by landslides and broken roads, delaying the arrival of aid and leaving bereft residents feeling abandoned.

"Some soldiers went through here yesterday. We've not seen anybody since," said Zhang Gongchuang, as his wife slept under a tent and children played cards.