A working group led by Chinese Foreign Ministry officials will go to Kyrgyzstan Tuesday to investigate the killings of a Chinese diplomat and his limousine driver last weekend.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the Chinese side is “shocked” and strongly condemn the murders.
“We have asked the Kyrgyzstani side to investigate and arrest the murderer/murderers as quickly as possible,” the spokesman said.
Chinese consul Wang Jianping and his driver were gunned down late Saturday in the centre of Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, the country's interior ministry announced.
Wang was riding in his limousine when two unidentified people opened fire from close range and then sped off in a waiting car, according to Russia's RIA Novosti news agency and witnesses.
The two gunmen used Russian-made TT pistols, investigators told the agency. They remain on the loose.
The victims died instantly; Wang's family has been told the news.
According to the Chinese Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstani officials have expressed deep regret for the deaths and have vowed to arrest and punish the suspects according to the law.
In May 2000, two Chinese diplomats were killed in Kyrgyzstan in an attack that law enforcement authorities later blamed on four Uygur separatists.
Those separatists are in prison awaiting a court appeal.
Authorities are looking at whether Uygur separatists were involved in the latest killings.
“We cannot rule out the theory that Uygur separatists were involved,” said interior ministry spokesman Omurbek Egemberdiyev.
(China Daily July 2, 2002)
