Police in southern China have arrested five more suspects in a human smuggling attempt that led to the drowning deaths of six women, the official China Daily newspaper reported yesterday. Authorities have asked Taiwan to hand over information about the incident, the paper said.
Authorities in Fujian Province, where the smuggling attempt originated, have launched an "intensive investigation," with the help of China's Public Security Ministry and the Red Cross Society of China, the report said.
China has asked Taiwan for background information about four Taiwanese among the 18 suspects arrested in China, it said. China also wants information about five suspects the report said had been arrested in Taiwan, as well as Chinese women who were rescued by the coast guard, it said.
The paper said China's semiofficial body for handling contacts with Taiwan wrote to its Taiwanese counterparts on Thursday "demanding help in collecting information about human smugglers."
Calls to the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait rang unanswered yesterday.
The drownings occurred on Aug. 26 when human traffickers dumped 20 Chinese women into the sea as they were being pursued by coast guard vessels off Taiwan's west coast.
Twelve women were rescued and four others swam ashore.
The incident sparked an exchange of accusations between China and Taiwan, with President Chen Shui-bian (
China dismissed Chen's comments as "absurd" and "inhumane," but soon after announced the arrests of 13 suspects.
The report said the other five were arrested in China, but didn't say specifically when or where.
Taiwan is currently detaining about 2,500 Chinese illegal immigrants, most of them women.
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