China's Supreme People's Procuratorate has ordered prosecutors around the country to intensify a crackdown on official dereliction of duty of the sort that led to the forced labor scandal last month.

The order was issued after 33 officials were removed from government posts for failing to prevent the scandal in the brick kilns of north China's Shanxi Province.

The notice requires prosecutors to rigorously prosecute officials in cases of dereliction of duty that results in labor abuses "so as to safeguard fundamental rights and social justice".

Authorities are inspecting brick kilns, small mines and workshops around the country in a crackdown on labor abuses.

The notice said prosecutors should liaise with other departments to establish a long-term system for preventing a similar scandal.

They should help raise official capabilities to provide public services in rural areas so as to protect the interests of rural labors and minors.

The use of forced laborers hit the headlines after more than 400 parents in central China's Henan Province posted a help letter on the Internet last month, saying their missing children had been sold to small brick kilns in Shanxi and Henan as forced laborers.

By June 22, 359 people, including 12 children, had been rescued from illegal brick kilns in Shanxi and police had arrested 38 people. Police in Henan rescued 217 people, including 29 children, and arrested 120 people in a four-day crackdown, in which more than 35,000 police checked 7,500 kilns.

So far, more than 40 kiln bosses and employees have gone on trial in connection with the forced labor scandal. They face charges such as forcing people to work in unspeakable conditions and intentionally injuring other people.

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2007)