Asia-Pacific News
Eight feared dead after Russia sinks Chinese cargo ship (2nd Roundup)
Feb 19, 2009, 9:46 GMT
Beijing - Eight crew were feared dead after Russian Coast Guard vessels fired on a Chinese ship that was fleeing port after a dispute over a rice cargo, Chinese and Russian sources said Thursday.
China's Foreign Ministry said the cargo ship New Star sank Saturday off Russia's eastern port of Nakhodka in waters close to Japan.
The Hong Kong-based owner of the ship on Thursday accused Russian officials of covering up an 'act of murder' by a warship.
'Their account does not mention the fact that their warship fired on our cargo ship,' the Chinese government website china.org quoted a statement by the J-Rui Lucky Shipping Company as saying.
'What they are portraying as a rescue was in fact an act of murder,' the statement said.
J-Rui said it had leased the New Star since 2006 to the Tongyu shipping company, based in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang.
Chinese and Russian media reports said the Russian Coast Guard opened fire after the ship ignored warnings to return to port.
China's Global Times newspaper said at least one sailor was shot dead before the ship sank.
Russia's RIA Novosti news agency said eight crew died at sea after the Sierra Leone-flagged vessel sank during a storm.
The ship had tried to deliver a cargo of rice, but a Russian buyer refused to accept the rice because of quality concerns, both reports said.
Tonggyu ordered the captain to flee Russian waters because it feared legal action, the Russian agency quoted local prosecutors as saying.
The ship then left port without permission and 'crossed the Russian border illegally,' local police told the agency.
The 16 Indonesian and Chinese crew entered life rafts after the ship began sinking and eight were rescued by a Russian ship, the report said.
Attempts to save the other eight crew 'failed when they were washed out to sea and drowned,' it said.
The Global Times said the New Star was sequestered in Nakhodka for 'alleged smuggling,' a charged rejected by J-Rui.
The newspaper said a Russian Coast Guard cruiser fired at least 500 rounds on the ship and 'forced it to sail back toward the port in force-6 winds.'
The ship began to sink on the way back to port and one of the two lifeboats was engulfed by high waves, the newspaper said.
It said three of the eight missing crew were Chinese and the rest were Indonesian.
China's Foreign Ministry gave different numbers for the crew and missing, saying three of the 10 Chinese crew on board were rescued and seven were missing.
Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu on Thursday said Chinese officials had urged Russia to 'spare no effort to help search for the missing crew members and quickly find out the causes of the incident.'
The J-Rui statement said Russian navy officers 'did not offer any assistance to the crew of the New Star to board the warship,' while the Global Times said the Chinese ship did not send an SOS signal to the Russian Coast Guard.
Russian prosecutors were investigating the conduct of the Coast Guard officers in the incident, RIA Novosti said.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Interesting enough and 'Most disturbing about these reports are them stating that the New Star is owned by the J Rui Lucky Shipping Co Ltd. which is a private limited company registered in Hong Kong and has long been known by Russian FSB Analysts to be an International shipping carrier of US Military and CIA cargo to support their Global War on Terror under contract with the American giant services company KBR whose former leader was US Vice President Cheney.' according to other sources available on the net.
..never mind that the article insinuates it's a chinese ship and then says it's 'Sierra Leone' flagged! Covert what?...terror...Cheney...?...what's next, aliens?
Cheney is likely in Crawford passed out in Bush's pool, a shotgun on his belly, in a floating chair, with Heinekin bottles floating all around him, naked....
every time Chenney fortold the repeat of 9-11.'not if but when'
He was treadding where only terrorists had.
every effort at self-cogratulations for having resisted thus far;
the visible fuse begging for a light
Cops go berserk when someone causes them to give chase; that's why Rodney King got the crap beat out of him, he ran. Cops get even more surly when forced to give chase under nasty conditions. The Russian Coast Guardsmen were in a cop role when they had to leave port in a gale to chase this vessel, and they behaved just as cops would.
And by the way, a ship's port of registry has nothing to do with who owns or crews a vessel. Registering a ship in a country which offers advantages for doing so is called a 'flag of convenience', and it's an extremely common practice. Panama, Liberia, and yes, Sierra Leone, are the favorites. I'm not the least surprised that a 'Chinese' ship was registered in Sierra Leone.
Nothing like gun-boat diplomacy.
There is OBVIOUSLY more to this than is on the surface (no pun intended). Something HAD to have caused the ship to flee with its cargo of 'rice'.
I guess the answer may be resting on the ocean floor now.
please go to whatdoesitmean.com for the kremlin's story on just what was in that ship, who is affiliated with it and where it was headed. spread truth, warn others and prepare. with love, one of the remnant
Think about the effects of ocean water on a cargo of rice. If the cargo is really rice there will be plenty of very fat fish when the hull explodes under the pressure of the expanding rice and the rice will surely be washed aways and if there is anything other than rice (contraband) it will surely be recovered to prove who is correct in there report.
If the ship was carrying something either very important or very incriminating that should not have been there (as suggested by their supposed CIA carrier role) it is entirely probable that they scuttled the ship. If whatever it is has been buried in thousands of tons of rice, it will take the fish a while to clear the way to finding it - it will be exceedingly difficult for divers to excavate by now fully expanded rice. Needle in haystack stuff! But the evidence will emerge eventually and may well be made public when it does, in order to rebuff claims of 'Russians murder Chinese sailors'.
wow ALL the commenters on this are complete idiots WTF goes on in your pea sized brains
page: 1
SP4: Chinese?Feb 19th, 2009 - 16:26:11
...it was a Sierra Leonne - flagged vessel.
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