Four officials from
Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs visited the city of Qiqihar in
northeast China's Heilongjiang
Province at the weekend to investigate an accident in which at
least 36 people were injured by chemical weapons left by Japanese
troops during their invasion of China (1937-45).
The team, headed by
Kawakami Fumihiro, a foreign ministry official in charge of China
affairs, visited the sites where the chemical weapons were found
and the location where they are presently stored. The officials
brought flowers to the 34 victims who are staying at the People's
Liberation Army Hospital No 203 in Qiqihar for medical treatment.
Another two victims were not hospitalized because their injuries
were not serious.
A Xinhua report said
yesterday that Chinese victims and their families have demanded
compensation.
Details about the
demands are not available, but Chinese Foreign Ministry officials
are reported to have been negotiating with the Japanese side in the
past two days.
On Friday, the Chinese
government urged Japan to seriously deal with the accident. Fu
Ying, director of the Department of Asian Affairs of China's
Foreign Ministry, lodged solemn representations with the Japanese
Embassy in Beijing.
The chemical weapons,
stored in five metal barrels, were discovered last Monday morning
at a construction site. One of the barrels was carelessly broken by
workers at the site, causing an oil-like substance to leak out and
penetrate into the soil.
Unaware of the nature of
the material, two workers later cut the barrels into pieces and
sold them to a recycling facility in a residential
community.
Things were made worse
when the polluted soil from the building site was moved to other
locations as part of construction work.
After technical
analysis, experts later confirmed that the five barrels had been
left by the Japanese army and contained mustard gas.
Of the 34 victims in
Hospital No 203, two are close to death, with blood problems and
difficult breathing, said Min Xinge, director of the hospital's
Medical Affairs Office.
Another eight patients
were last night in serious conditions. The other patients are under
observation and it is possible that their condition could worsen,
Min said.
A typical characteristic
of poisoning caused by mustard gas is pruritus (severe itching) and
burning, especially on a man's genitalia, the official
said.
On August 4, Li Huizhen,
a 31-year-old rural worker among these victims who comes from
central China's Henan
Province, had 30 percent of his skin affected by burning on
August 5 but it had spread to 95 percent by yesterday, Min
noted.
Dozens of experts on
chemical weapons, burns treatment and relevant diseases from army
hospitals, and China's defence and foreign ministries have been
invited to Qiqihar to deal with the aftermath of the
accident.
The city government
organized a police contingent to prevent the pollution from
spreading. Eleven sites polluted by the gas have been strictly
controlled.
In another development,
a bomb with nerve gas was found yesterday in Changsha, capital city
of central China's Hunan
Province. It belonged to the air force of the Japanese invaders
and had been buried for nearly 60 years.
(China Daily August 11,
2003)