Chinese Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Hong Jiuyin had an urgent meeting
again on Saturday with Kyrgyz Deputy Foreign Minister Zheenbek
Kulubayev over a murder case in which 19 Chinese citizens died when
traveling home from Kyrgyzstan to China on a bus that was set
ablaze.
During the meeting, Kulubayev said the Kyrgyz side has lost no time
in carrying out autopsies on the bodies of the Chinese victims.
While the job was quite difficult, he said, the Kyrgyz side has
already finished forensic examinations of the bodies of 17 of the
dead Chinese citizens.
Kulubayev said the Kyrgyz side will work harder and try to finish
the rest of the work in two or three days.
Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev and Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev
have once again ordered all the departments concerned to take every
measure to finish the forensic work as soon as possible, according
to the Kyrgyz official.
Once the work has been completed, the Kyrgyz side will assist the
Chinese side in bringing the bodies back to China.
He
said Kyrgyzstan's Ministry of Interior Affairs, the National
Security Service and procuratorial authorities are also speeding up
the handling of related matters.
All the 21 passengers aboard the bus were killed in the incident on
Thursday.
The bus was traveling between the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek and the
Chinese city of Kashi,
Xinjiang.
(Xinhua News Agency March 30, 2003)