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建议 Anonymous victims of Chinese earthquake laid to rest in mass gra
The gash of freshly turned earth across a hillside was not, as might have seemed likely, one of the hundreds of landslides triggered by China\\\'s massive earthquake. It was a mass grave for some of the victims.
The only clue was a line of incense sticks and half-burnt funeral candles along the side of the road. A line of young soldiers, their faces masked against the stench, stood guard across the entrance. More troops, their uniforms protected by transparent plastic coats, squatted at the foot of the slope waiting for the next grim delivery.
An official explained the decision to dig the grave: “The authorities asked us to bury the bodies quickly because they have been dead for several days. There is no time to waste. It\\\'s already been quite a long time and now the weather is starting to get warmer.”
A digger had carved out three trenches, each about 50 metres long and 1.5 metres deep. One had already been filled. Officials refused to say how many bodies had been buried or how many they expected to receive. One official said: “We are now busy taking action to deal with this, so how many will be buried here, we really don\\\'t know yet.”
Their goal was to ensure the health of the living while respecting the dead.
The site chosen for the grave is a disused lime kiln on the edge of Libing village. It stands at the foot of a line of jagged hills in which thousands of people have died at the epicentre of the 7.9 magnitude earthquake that shook China on Monday.
An army officer said that the soldiers\\\' task was to line the grave with lime and then lay in a body. More lime was then thrown over the corpse and it was sprayed with disinfectant. The officer hoped that this would not be an anonymous grave and that, one day, the bodies could be claimed by their relatives - if any have survived.
A photograph was taken of each corpse. Hair and blood were recorded to enable DNA identification at some later date.
Morgues and hospitals are already overwhelmed with the dead. In some areas there is insufficient electricity to provide power to keep the bodies. There is no option but a swift burial, with as much dignity as possible, in a land plunged into grief.
One doctor told a radio channel devoted to the disaster that bodies had to be disposed of as quickly as possible more than five days after the quake. The site for a grave needed to be well away from any water sources, and bodies should be disinfected and buried with lime to ensure sanitation.
The soldiers working at this mass grave, just a handful from among more than 130,000 People\\\'s Liberation Army troops deployed to search for survivors and dig out the dead, were nervous and clearly under orders to keep out prying eyes.
One said: “It is dangerous here. And we are very busy. No one can come in.”
A young farmer shrugged when asked if he was afraid to have such a large grave on a hillside close to his home. “What is the point of being frightened? If they don\\\'t bury the dead at once, then they will spread disease.”
地震过后的伤痕
这条“新辟”的大裂痕看起来很像是由发生在中国西部大地震所造成的数百处山体断缝之一。但它实际上却是一个集体墓穴，埋葬那些无名地震遇难者。
沿路一侧摆放的一排香火和还没烧完的蜡烛暗示了这一点。一排脸上蒙着防臭面罩的年轻士兵守在入口。更多的士兵则蹲在坡脚那儿静穆地等待着下一次尸体的运付，他们的制服外面套着层透明塑料布。
一位官员解释了这一举措：“当局要求我们马上安葬这些无名的遇难者尸体，因为确认死亡已经好几天了。不能再耽误了。都放置很久了，而且现在天气也开始变热了。”
挖掘机刨了3个大坑，每个约50米长、1.5米深。有一个已经填满了。官员们拒绝透露具体有多少具尸体已被掩埋或是准备接收安葬多少。一位官员说：“我们现正忙于安置。但对于将有多少会被安葬在这里，我们真的不知情。”
他们的目标是首先确保幸存者的人身健康，同时并尊重遇难者。
周一发生在中国的7.9级的大地震造成震中周围山谷里有数千上万人遇难。而这些墓穴就位于山脚黎丙村（音译，译者注）边上一个废弃的石灰窑处。
一名军官说，士兵们的任务是把墓穴铺上石灰和掩埋尸体。随后撒上更多的石灰，并喷洒消毒剂。官员不愿看到这成为一座无名墓穴，而是希望有一天，他们被任一可能生还的亲人前来认领。
每具尸体都被拍了照。头发和血液也被取样保存以便日后进行DNA鉴定。
停尸间和医院已经饱和。在一些地方没有足够的电力供给用以存放尸体。对于这座彻底陷入悲恸的土地，赋以最大尊重的简单安葬实在是一种无奈之举。
一位医生对某报道灾情的电台说地震发生快五天了，必须尽快处置尸体。安葬尸体的墓穴须远离任何水源，并应进行消毒和石灰掩埋以确保卫生。
负责这些集体墓穴的士兵只是从派遣而来的13万多的解放军搜寻援助部队中抽调出的极少数，他们神经紧张地遵照命令——严防窥视。
其中一位说：“这里很危险。我们非常忙。没有人可以允许进来。”
当一位年轻的农民被问及这么大的墓穴就在离他家不远的山坡上是否令他害怕时，他说：“有什么可怕的？如果不及时安葬尸体，可能就会引发疾病。”
