CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (Kyodo) The mayor of Christchurch expressed willingness Monday to build a monument in memory of victims of the Feb. 22 earthquake that struck the city, describing people from overseas affected by the disaster as "a part of our family."
"We have yet to decide how, where and when, but there must be a way for us to never forget what happened here, to honor those in our own community and to honor those in overseas communities who are part of our family forever now," Bob Parker said in an interview.
Parker also pledged to get to the bottom of the collapse of the building that housed Canterbury Television and the King's Education language school and called on all people concerned, including relatives of the foreign students, to be patient about the progress of identification of the deceased.