RECENT PAST: The city of Beichuan in a photo taken on May 12, when a quake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale devastated Sichuan province. -- PHOTO: AFP

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'We trust that the government and party will give us justice for our dead children,' reads one message, made stark by the use of bold black ink on a white banner.

But a month after the May12 earthquake brought down the school and killed 129 pupils, parents here in Wufu township are no closer to answers, accountability or even punishment for what happened.

Many of them suspect that shoddy construction, rather than the tremors per se, led to the deaths of their children.

'If it were a natural disaster, I could accept it,' said farmer Zhang Xiuhui, 37, whose 13-year-old daughter Fu Shoulian was killed in the disaster.

In the aftermath of the worst earthquake to strike China in three decades, heartbroken parents like Ms Zhang represent the earliest group of victims to speak openly about their unhappiness.

May 12, 2.28pm when earthquake struck 8.0 Magnitude quake ... more

A month on, many other frustrated voices are bubbling to the surface, as millions of survivors grapple with acute anxieties over their futures.

Where and when will their towns be rebuilt? How can they find jobs?

These questions were repeatedly raised when The Straits Times interviewed some 40 quake survivors in seven different quake-hit towns over the past week.

The survivors say they have received few satisfactory answers so far, and there are signs that their patience is wearing thin.

In the early days of the quake, Beijing was feted at home and abroad for its quick response, media openness and all-out rescue efforts.

But now as the enormous task of reconstruction and re-housing the displaced population begins, Chinese leaders could face a backlash as people struggle to get back on their feet.

Potential problems over corruption, the misuse of aid and compensation funds, budget constraints as well as organisational incompetencies could cause simmering anger to boil over into unrest, say observers.

There are also lingering safety fears, including the threat of aftershocks, landslides and flooding from at least 30 quake lakes.

Already, there have been scattered protests and lawsuit threats by disgruntled parents over shoddy school construction that they say is linked to official corruption.

The local authorities have responded by sending in security forces to cordon off the schools, muzzling local media and handing out compensation to parents, along with 'advice' to refrain from making trouble while investigations are being conducted.

Central government officials, however, still appear unwilling to address the problem head on.

On Tuesday, a press briefing in Beijing by Education Minister Zhou Ji was hastily cancelled just hours before its scheduled start. He was expected to face tough questions on the student deaths and the progress of investigations.

For Ms Ren Yungui, 37, every day that passes without an answer is torture. Since the death of her 16-year-old son, Wang Anji, in the collapse of Xiang'e Middle School, she has not had a good night's sleep. Some 400 of the school's 500 students were killed.

Ms Ren has received 12,000 yuan (S$2,400) in compensation but says she will never touch the cash.

'This money is bought with my son's blood,' she said. 'I will only rest when I know who is responsible for his death and see them brought to justice.'

Asked how long she is prepared to go without an answer, she said resolutely: 'Six months, tops. Beyond that, we will not tolerate it.'

Others are also feeling the strain of waiting.

Ms Liang Jufan, who moved into a prefabricated hut with her family a week ago, says the suspense of not knowing when they will have to relocate again is keeping her up at night.

'We are like the shifting sand, moving here and there,' lamented the 39-year- old native of Yingxiu township, one of the hardest hit by the earthquake.

She added: 'But we need to lay down our roots, so that we can start planning for the future. Now, we're living day to day. We cannot go on like this for long.'

The Chinese government has not been sitting idle, but the sheer scale of the reconstruction and resettling effort means survivors like Ms Liang have a long, uncertain wait ahead of them.

The earthquake killed almost 70,000 people, destroyed hundreds of towns and villages in the mountains, and left at least five million people homeless.

The government is racing to set up a million prefabricated huts that will serve as temporary housing for the next one to three years, while experts are busy hammering out a reconstruction blueprint that will decide, among other things, if towns should be rebuilt on their original sites or relocated elsewhere.

Though these survivors hanker after a return to their old life, experts say this will not be possible for many people, particularly the hill dwellers who lived in small, scattered farming communities in the mountains.

'It is likely that some displaced people will be centralised in small- and medium- sized towns on safe, flat ground, away from the mountains,' Tongji University's Professor Kuang Xiaoming, who is involved in drafting the reconstruction plan, told The Straits Times.

On Tuesday, China passed a new set of regulations stating that new schools, hospitals and other public buildings in the affected region must be made more quake-resistant than residential buildings in the area.

This ruling resonates strongly with those who lost their loved ones in last month's earthquake.

Said Ms Wu Shifan, 32, who lost her 10-year-old son Tang Hao when his school in Dujiangyan city crumbled: 'Please build stronger buildings so that no one will have to go through what we are going through now,' she pleaded.

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