Zhu Offers an Apology for School Blast

BEIJING — In a rare apology, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji said Thursday that his government was to blame for not doing enough to prevent a deadly schoolhouse explosion last week.

But Zhu defended the official explanation of the accident that killed at least 42 people at an elementary school in Jiangxi province March 6.

Residents have told Chinese and foreign journalists that students were forced to assemble firecrackers in class to earn extra money for the school. The incident triggered outrage across the nation.

But the image-conscious government--which has shut off access and limited phone service to the area--insists that a psychotic villager blew up the school.

Zhu said no evidence so far contradicts the official version of events, although he conceded that pupils had made firecrackers at the school in 1999 as part of a “work force study” program. That activity ended after an earlier explosion in Jiangxi, Zhu said he was told by plainclothes detectives whom he personally ordered to investigate the incident.

But Zhu expressed contrition that his government had not done more to prevent such explosions and accidents.