China completes Kyrgyzstan evacuation
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A ninth chartered plane carrying Chinese nationals from riot-hit Kyrgyzstan landed in the northwestern city of Urumqi early Thursday, ending China's largest overseas evacuation, in which 1,299 people were airlifted.
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Chinese nationals prepare to board the chartered flight at an airport in Osh, southern Kyrgyzstan, June 15, 2010. [Sadat/Xinhua] |
The arrival of the flight from the Central Asian nation brought relief and excitement for family members waiting at the airport and those evacuated from the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh, where deadly ethnic clashes erupted last week and escalated over the weekend.
My mother and my wife "were in tears," said a middle-aged businessman who, upon his arrival in Urumqi, made a phone call to his family at Kax, a city in the south of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
"I was running a feedstuff business there (in Kyrgyzstan). I am so proud that our home country sent chartered flights," he said.
"Thank you all. I think I shall never forget this for the rest of my life," said a man who gave his name as Ahmat.
Several thousand Chinese nationals were in the region affected by violence in Kyrgyzstan. Many of them were business people from Xinjiang.
There were no more Chinese nationals waiting to be evacuated at the Osh airport after the departure of the ninth chartered flight Thursday.
China initiated the evacuation on June 12, after deadly clashes erupted in Osh and spread to the Jalalabad region. The violence has left at least 187 dead and many others injured.
The Chinese government tasked a team with leading the evacuation that involved the Foreign Ministry, the Chinese Embassy in Bishkek, China Southern Airlines, Chinese organizations in Kyrgyzstan as well as Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Ministry and border defense.
Members of the team braved the violence to complete the evacuation, said Chinese Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Wang Kaiwen.
