Beijing Wednesday strongly condemned the "barbarous'' killing of
six mainland women smuggled to Taiwan and it urged the island's
authorities to step up their efforts to crack down on cross-Straits
human trafficking.
The Beijing authorities also accused Taiwan leader Chen
Shui-bian of making "absurd remarks'' to distort the facts and
defend the crime.
An official with the semi-official Association for Relations
Across the Taiwan Straits, who refused to give his name, said the
mainland is deeply concerned over the drowning of the women, who
were thrown into the sea by local human traffickers early on
Tuesday.
Such a "brutal and inhumane'' criminal act should be strongly
condemned, he said.
At the approach of a patrol boat, 26 mainland women were dumped
overboard by people smugglers, known as "snakehead'' gangs, near
Tunghsiao on the island's west coast.
Seventeen of them were later rescued and three are still
missing, according to Xinhua New Agency.
Two of the survivors were seriously hurt and taken to
hospital.
Taiwan police said they arrested four of the alleged people
smugglers -- all Taiwanese -- on the Penghu Islands late on
Tuesday.
Huang Yun-huang, a Taiwan coastguard official, said one of the
men had been detained briefly two weeks earlier for smuggling
mainland women to Taiwan.
The women were believed to be seeking work in Taiwan. They
reportedly said they had paid NT$200,000 (US$5,700) each for the
boat ride to try to sneak in from East China's Fujian Province on
the other side of the Straits.
The survivors said they left Fuzhou, capital city of Fujian, on
Sunday by fishing boat. They said they went without food or water
for three days and three nights because the smugglers did not give
them any.
Xu Zhengzheng, one of the survivors, said: "One woman shouted
'Help, help, I can't swim.' But, after she went into the water,
there was only silence.
Describing her ordeal on Taiwanese television, another survivor
said: "They pulled my hair and dragged and kicked me out of the
boat.''
The association official stressed that the Taiwan authorities
are duty-bound to arrest the suspects and punish those found guilty
and to curb cross-Straits human trafficking to safeguard the rights
and interests of people on both sides of the Straits.
He said he hoped there would be greater co-operation between the
mainland and Taiwan to strike hard against cross-Straits human
trafficking in a bid to avoid the recurrence of such incidents.
The official urged the relevant departments on the island to
continue their search for the missing people and to offer the
survivors appropriate accommodation and medical treatment.
The mainland also expects the Taiwanese authorities to provide
it with any information discovered by investigators to facilitate a
joint crackdown against cross-Straits crimes, the official
said.
The official also hit out at Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian's
"inhumane'' attitude.
Chen reportedly said the mainland women risked their lives to
flee from the mainland solely because they were dissatisfied with
their homeland and the mainland authorities.
"We feel very indignant about Chen's inhumane act in making
these wanton remarks instead of condemning the human traffickers'
cruel action,'' the official said.
Also yesterday, the Fujian provincial Taiwan Affairs Office and
the Fujian Public Security and Border Defence Bureau urged the
Taiwan authorities to take effective and prompt action in
eliminating human trafficking to the island.
Fujian Province has been working to curb human trafficking to
Taiwan over the past few years.
Wang Bin, deputy director of the provincial security bureau,
said: "The province redoubled its efforts to crack down on human
smuggling by punishing snakeheads and smugglers according to
legislation and regulations and by educating local residents to
stop them from being misled or cheated by Taiwan-based human
trafficking gangs.''
Wei Zhongci, director of Fujian's Taiwan Affairs Office, said:
"The province (Fujian) hopes that the relevant departments in
Taiwan can report the identities of the six dead as soon as
possible. The province will provide every possible support to the
victims' families to deal with funeral arrangements in Taiwan if
any of the dead is found to be a Fujian resident.''
(China Daily August 28, 2003)