Russia urged to probe sinking of ship

By Li Xiaokun (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-20 07:38

The Foreign Ministry yesterday urged Russia to explain why a Chinese vessel sank off its far-eastern port of Vladivostok, leaving seven Chinese missing.

"China has already made representations to the Russian side," the ministry's spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news conference.

"We hope they continue the search-and-rescue operations for the missing sailors and clarify the reason (for the incident) as soon as possible."

Chinese consulate officials in Khabarovsk and Vladivostok visited three rescued sailors, Jiang said.

An official with the Chinese consulate in Khabarovsk, who refused to give his name, told China Daily the survivors are in good condition and have contacted their families.

A Russian prosecutor yesterday said the country's border guards repeatedly fired on and sank the fleeing Chinese cargo vessel off Russia's coast on Sunday.

Alexander Selentsov, a prosecutor in Vladivostok city, told the Interfax News Agency the Russian border guards received orders from the Federal Security Service last weekend "to open fire" on New Star, the Chinese ship, to stop it from escaping Russia's Nakhodka port.

"The order was carried out after radio warnings," he said.

Russian officials had previously denied border guards had fired on the ship after local media reported the incident and said severe weather caused the sinking.

Vladivostok Daily News, the first newspaper to report that the ship was fired upon, said more than 500 rounds were shot at the ship's bow and stern.

The Russian border guards watched the ship sink for nearly 24 hours, and made no response to the crewmen's cries for help, the report said.

Sixteen sailors from New Star boarded two lifeboats.

Russian crewmen saved one lifeboat, while the other, carrying seven Chinese and an Indonesian, was engulfed by waves.

Russian media have quoted local prosecutors as saying the New Star left port without permission last Thursday, fearing punishment for importing "poor-quality" rice.

But the ship's operator, a Hong Kong-based shipping company, claimed yesterday the vessel had departed because the Russian side had asked for $330,000 in compensation for allegedly damaging the rice and illegally sequestered the vessel for nearly two weeks.

The ship's owner, a Zhejiang province-based shipping company, said six of the missing Chinese sailors are from Shandong province's Rizhao and Yantai cities, while the other comes from Heilongjiang province.