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Kyrgyzstan Asks Neighbors for Help in Investigating
Bus Attack
March 31, 2003
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) _ Kyrgyzstan has asked
neighboring countries for help in investigating the
deaths of 21 people on a Chinese-owned passenger bus
last week, an official said Monday.
Kyrgyz Interior Minister Bakirdin Subanbekov spoke
with his counterparts in the former Soviet republics
of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, ministry
spokesman Ruslan Umarbekov said. The ministry is also
awaiting a group of investigators from China, he said.
The burnt-out double decker bus was discovered
Thursday in the mountains of southeastern Kyrgyzstan.
The 21 victims, mostly ethnic Uighur vendors from
China, appeared to have been shot and killed before
their bus was engulfed in flames, officials said.
Kyrgyz authorities have ruled out terrorism, and point
to robbery as the likely motive. Chinese shuttle
traders have established a major presence in the
Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, bringing in clothing and
electronic goods and carrying their profits back home.
On Monday, the pro-government KG-Info news agency said
law enforcement officials had recorded ten attacks on
Chinese shuttle traders in Kyrgyzstan, and said
criminals had robbed and killed eight passengers on a
minibus in Kazakhstan several years ago.
At least 19 of the badly burned victims have been
identified as Chinese nationals, 16 of them Uighurs,
Umarbekov said. Twelve of them worked at Bishkek
markets, he said. Two of the bodies have not yet been
identified.
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