|
China's Central Asian neighbours move to pre-empt
entry of SARS
Wed May 7,11:34
ALMATY (AFP) - Kazakhstan
virtually closed its border with China and Kyrgyzstan
was carrying out strict checks as efforts to keep the
deadly SARS (news - web sites) virus out of ex-Soviet
Central Asia intensified.
"Only cargo is being allowed through (the border) as
well as Kazakhs returning as part of the evacuation of
our citizens," Murat Buldekbayev, spokesman to Kazakh
Prime Minister Imangali Tasmagambetov said Wednesday.
Limiting movement across Kazakhstan's 1,800-kilometre
(1,120-mile) border with western China is part of an
intensification of measures intended to stop Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) from entering this
vast former Soviet republic, Buldekbayev said.
"Returning citizens are being subjected to health
checks," he told AFP.
The suspension of air, rail and car travel for
passengers between China and Kazakhstan was announced
earlier.
Kazakhstan's foreign ministry declined to say how many
Kazakh citizens are to be evacuated from China under a
plan announced earlier.
Kyrgyzstan to the south has so far not closed its
mountainous border with China but cross-border bus
services have been temporarily banned since the
killing in March in a suspected highway robbery of a
bus-load of 21 people, many of them cross-border
traders, a Kyrgyz interior ministry spokesman said.
Yelena Bayalinova, a spokeswoman for Kyrgyzstan's
health ministry, voiced confidence in the authorities'
preventive measures.
"A field hospital has been established at (Bishkek's)
Manas airport and strict checks are being carried out
at border crossing points. Seperate premises have been
allocated at infectious diseases hospitals in Bishkek
and the provinces," Bayalinova said.
Kyrgyz students studying in China have been summoned
home, the interior ministry spokesman added.
There are currently no cases or suspected cases of
SARS in either Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan, officials
said.
Earlier Turkmenistan, to the southwest of Kazakhstan
and Kyrgyzstan, announced that it was evacuating 14
Turkmen students from China as a preventive step and
suspending flights to Bangkok by the national carrier
Turkmenistan Airlines.
|
