The first group of Chinese evacuated from the riot-torn Solomon Islands flew
back to China Sunday, Xinhua News Agency reported.
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| Hu Meili and her
daughter are welcomed by her father, Hu Yuebin, at Guangzhou Baiyun
International Airport upon their arrival in South China's Guangdong
Province. [Xinhua] |
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And on Monday, China sent a
chartered plane to Papua New Guinea to carry back home the Chinese nationals and
people of Chinese origin in Solomon Islands.
The Chinese Embassy in
Papua New Guinea has recently chartered planes to fly overseas Chinese in
Solomon Islands to Papua New Guinea.
The first group of 15
Chinese left the troubled South Pacific state on board Australian and New
Zealand military aircraft on Wednesday and Thursday, arriving in Sydney.
The group 14 citizens and one overseas took a chartered flight to Shanghai
and South China's Guangdong Province yesterday.
About 150 Chinese were also airlifted out of Honiara yesterday, travelling to
the airport under heavy security in the back of three small trucks. They will
join 90 Chinese, mostly women and children flown to Papua New Guinea on
Saturday, and eventually be repatriated via Australia.
President Hu Jintao, who is on a state visit to Saudi Arabia, yesterday
instructed the Foreign Ministry as well as Chinese embassies and consulates in
Papua New Guinea and other countries to take measures to protect the security of
the overseas Chinese in the riot-torn South Pacific state and help them tide
over the current hardships facing them.
Chinese were the main target and victims of the protest riots triggered by
the election of Snyder Rini as prime minister by 50 lawmakers chosen in
parliamentary election on April 5 in the Solomon Islands.
The Chinatown in the country's capital of Honiara was nearly levelled
following looting and arson attacks.
Dozens of Chinese-owned shops in Honiara were broken into.
There were more than 400 Chinese living and doing business in Honiara, most
of whom are from Kaiping, a county in South China's Guangdong Province,
according to an official with the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office in Kaiping.
"We have contacted them by telephone after the incidents, and some said their
shops had been completely destroyed," the official, who asked not to be
identified, told China Daily yesterday.
The direct economic losses resulting from the political riots to Chinese
people are estimated to have reached more than US$10 million, according to the
official.
Zhao Yanbo, political counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in Papua New Guinea,
said dozens of Chinese were taking shelter at a police station in Honiara.
They will be evacuated on a voluntary basis, he was quoted as saying by
Xinhua.
As China and the Solomon Islands do not have diplomatic relations, two Port
Moresby-based Chinese consulate officials are in Honiara to facilitate the
evacuation.
Zhao said that some Chinese were injured during the riots, but none
seriously.