Chinese demand answers in killing
- Source: Global Times
- [02:41 August 25 2010]
- Comments
Relatives of one of the eight hostages killed in Monday's hijacking drama in Manila are assisted by a Buddhist monk Tuesday as they visit the site of the hostage siege. Philippine police conceded Tuesday that they made blunders in ending the bus hijacking, as outrage grew over the bloody assault that played out on live television and left eight Hong Kong tourists dead. Photo: AFP
By Zhu Shanshan
A wave of mourning and anger washed across China Tuesday over Monday's cold-blooded killings of Hong Kong tourists in the Philippine capital and from what many people are calling incompetence by police in handling a volatile hostage situation.
After a 10-hour standoff on a hijacked bus in Manila, eight Hong Kong tourists were shot dead and seven were injured by the hostage-taker - a dismissed police officer who was eventually killed by his former brothers in arms.
The government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region released on its website Tuesday the names of those killed - four men and four women aged between 14 and 57 - as well as the names of injured passengers who remained under observation in Philippine hospitals.
A survivor of the bus siege spoke to reporters Tuesday, identifying herself as Leung - the wife of Ken Leung Kam-wing and mother of two daughters, all of whom died in the shooting. She expressed her frustration at the handling of the standoff.
"Why didn't the Philippine police interfere earlier? They could have saved us, but they did not," she told reporters.
Two rescued Hong Kong hostages left Manila on a chartered flight last night, heading back to Hong Kong, and the other injured Hongkongers who are able to be moved, will be flown back today, according to Sun Yi, a press officer at the Chinese embassy in Manila, who spoke to the Global Times by phone.
A team sent by the Chinese government arrived in Manila Tuesday morning to deal with the aftermath and help tend to the victims and survivors, Sun said.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi have demanded a thorough investigation by the Philippines government into the incident.
A few Hong Kong politicians and citizens protested outside the Philippine consulate in Hong Kong Tuesday afternoon to express their fury over the handling of the crisis.
Leung Ka-shing, who was with the special duties unit of the Hong Kong police between 1983 and 1991, described the rescue operation as a failure and unprofessional, telling the Global Times it appeared the police didn't care about the lives of the hostages.
