China announced Monday that 95 officials from the ruling Communist Party had been punished, mostly just with warnings, for involvement in a shocking slave labour scandal.

“After nearly a month of intense work, we have basically uncovered which party and government officials were linked to the brick kiln incidents,” said Yang Senlin, disciplinary commission chief in China’s northern Shanxi province.

“The supervision of these public officials was inadequate, some officials were involved in serious problems like dereliction of duty and even participation in the administration of these evil brickyards,” Yang said.

Six of the 95 people in Shanxi punished were senior officials in local governments, including the vice party chief of Hongtong county, where authorities have focused much of their crackdown.

The scandal erupted in June after about 400 distraught parents posted a plea on the Internet to help save their children, whom they said had been sold into slavery in Shanxi and neighbouring Henan province.

The parents said up to 1,000 youths had been forced to toil under brutal and inhumane conditions at the kilns. Officials say 576 enslaved workers have since been rescued but only 41 of them were children.

The parents alleged local officials and police had turned a blind eye to the racket and refused to investigate the alleged crimes despite repeated requests.

Police acted only after the Internet posting filtered into the mainstream press.

Yang said three officials had been kicked out of the party, while seven were fired from their party jobs and 28 were given serious warnings, according to transcripts of his press conference in Shanxi published on government websites.

Criminal charges are likely to be laid against eight officials, Song said, without identifying them.

The other people punished were given less severe warnings and party demotions.

Over the past two weeks, 31 owners and bosses of the brick kilns have gone on trial in Shanxi on charges of illegal detention or forced labour practices. Little information has been released on investigations in Henan.

The slavery scandal has been seen as an extreme example of widespread inhumane working conditions in China.

AFP