- According to the Qinghai Bulletin Board Service (BBS),
the state of emergency imposed on the farming community and its surroundings
in the Northwestern Qinghai City / Town of Yushu was lifted on the night
of 28th July.
-
- When natives living further from the area made a trip
to the farming community, they discovered that it had "vanished"
together with 3 of its surrounding villages. Only some ruins, blocks from
collapsed walls, remained. Apparently, the farms and villages had been
flattened and there were signs that they had been razed.
-
- It is believed that some inhabitants from those 3 villages
were workers in the farm. Around 200 people were estimated to have inhabited
or worked in those 3 villages and the farm. There whereabouts are, as yet,
unknown.
-
- The above translation of a boxun report suggest that
three villages were razed in response to unrest linked to a forced bird
flu quarantine in Yushu in northwestern Qinghai in China. China has imposed
news blackouts and arrested reporters in the past, so verifiable news from
the area is difficult to obtain.
-
- News outside of China however, points toward a virulent
strain of H5N1 linked to Qinghai Lake has killed ducks and geese in several
areas of southern Siberia in Russia as well as the adjacent region in Kazakhstan.
There are now reports of five suspected cases of H5N1 in Kazakhstan linked
to infected geese, suggesting many similar cases would be possible in Qingahi
and Xinjiang provinces in China, where there have been three outbreaks
linked to migratory birds and all involved dead geese.
-
- Although it is possible that the ability to infect humans
has been recently acquired, boxun reports in May and June described human
fatalities in the Qinghai Lake region. In addition, several strains of
H5N1 capable of infecting humans were also described.
-
- The news blackout in China as well as additional suspect
cases in neighboring Sichuan province which may be spreading further south
to Yunnan province has suggested that a raging H5N1 pandemic in China is
being covered-up.
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