Mother of suicide siblings says her final goodbyes
Print Edition
THE mother of the four “left-behind children” who died on Tuesday after drinking pesticide made a tearful return home to southwest China’s Guizhou Province on Friday.
Ren Xifen, 32, who had been working in south China’s Guangdong Province, said she had not seen or spoken to her son and three daughters since leaving them in the remote village of Cizhu in the city of Bijie in March last year.
“I didn’t shoulder my responsibility. I had to come back for a final look at them,” she said.
Police ruled that the children — Zhang Qigang, 13, Zhang Qixin, 9, Zhang Qiyu, 7, and Zhang Qiwei, 5 — committed mass suicide by consuming pesticide.
Ren left home to work at a toy factory in Guangdong after a long dispute with her husband Zhang Fangqi. Zhang also moved away from the village, which is in one of the poorest areas of Guizhou, in March of this year, leaving the children to fend for themselves.
Local officials said they were trying to track down the father to inform him of the tragedy.
Ren said she never expected her children to end their lives in such a way. She said she had high hopes for her only son, the oldest of the four siblings.
“He was very lovable. Everyone liked him.
“I’m illiterate and can’t even write my own name. I wanted them to perform well in school, unlike me, living a hard life,” she said.
But the frequent quarrels she had with her husband disrupted family life, Ren said.
She said she hadn’t returned to see the children because she feared being beaten by her husband, although she missed them very much.
About 60 million children live in rural areas of China with relatives — usually grandparents — other than their parents. The separations are usually caused by parents leaving impoverished areas to find work in the city.
The practice led to the phrase “left-behind children” being coined.
In Ren’s case, there were no grandparents to look after the children, so they were left to fend for themselves, receiving money sent by their father to a bank account entrusted to the oldest child.
Such arrangements are not uncommon. According to a 2013 report by the All-China Women’s Federation, 3.4 percent of all left-behind children live alone, often falling victims to tragedies such as suicide and human traffickers.
“I hope my family’s tragedy is not repeated,” Ren said.
“If parents take care of their children and guide them, such tragedies will not happen.”
In 2012, five street children — also from Bijie — died of carbon monoxide poisoning after burning charcoal for warmth in a roadside dumpster.
Such tragedies reflect the lack of social services available to China’s rural children.
After hearing of the deaths of the four siblings, Premier Li Keqiang urged governments to do more to care for children in need. Such tragedies should not happen and officials should be held accountable, he said.
Several officials have already been fired or suspended because of the tragedy.
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