Foreign and Military Affairs

Father-to-be among 8 Chinese buried in Haiti

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-14 16:14

BEIJING: Three of eight peace-keeping police buried in Haiti's huge earthquake are from southwest China's Yunnan Provincial Public Security Border Defense -- and one has a pregnant wife at home, the organization said Thursday.

A spokesman for the provincial border defense authority said two men and a woman with the organization were buried, but he said the names would have to be released by the Ministry of Public Security in Beijing.

He said he could give no further information on the peace-keepers, nor did he know the identities of the other five people who were buried.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday's 7 magnitude quake, in which it is feared up to 100,000 people may have died, was a tragedy for Haiti and for the United Nations.

Ban Ki-moon said 16 UN personnel were confirmed dead late Wednesday in the earthquake, with 100 to 150 UN staff still unaccounted for.

Eight of the 125 Chinese peace-keeping police, who were deployed to Haiti last June to safeguard public security, were buried under debris, said a statement from China's cabinet, the State Council, on Wednesday.

Families and co-workers of the Chinese police in Haiti had expressed great concern over the safety of the eight buried staff, as they still could not make any contact with acquaintances in Haiti.

The spokesman for the Yunnan border defense police said 96 of China's 125 peace-keeping police in Haiti were from Yunnan Provincial Public Security Border Defense.

China sent an emergency rescue team of more than 60 people to Haiti on Wednesday.