China presses M'sia to rescue abducted Chinese tourists

China presses M'sia to rescue abducted Chinese tourists

It is a tough time for Malaysia, which is reeling from one major disaster after another.

Even as a multinational force continues its search for the missing MH370 flight in the southern Indian Ocean, news of a kidnapping in a resort in the state of Sabah has added to Malaysia's woes.

The passengers aboard the ill-fated flight were mostly Chinese, and one of the two abducted in Sabah is also Chinese. The other is a Filipina.

Both were allegedly kidnapped by about seven gunmen on Wednesday night from the Singamata Reef Resort near the town of Semporna on Borneo island.

Ms Gao Huayuan, 29, a tourist from Shanghai, was taken away with hotel employee Marcy Dayawan, 40, in a boat, AFP reported.

Ms Gao had arrived on Wednesday with two other friends for a diving course.

China yesterday pressed Malaysia to rescue her, as the kidnapping threatens to further strain relations already tested by the MH370 crisis.

Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak said the attack could be an attempt to stir up more trouble between China and Malaysia. He did not elaborate.

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"Our priority is to ensure the safety of the hostages," he was quoted as saying by Malaysian state-run news agency Bernama.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said: "We sent relevant staff to the site and asked the local police to make an all-out rescue effort, while ensuring the security of Chinese citizens and taking effective measures to safeguard the security of Chinese tourists."

Sabah Police Commissioner Hamza Taib told The Star yesterday that Ms Gao was on her phone and standing along the veranda outside her room when armed men who were escaping with Ms Dayawan grabbed her.

Said Mr Hamza: "On landing at the resort's rear entrance, the group entered the room of Mimi (Ms Dayawan) and grabbed her before fleeing. As they were running towards their boat, they grabbed Ms Gao."

He said no shots were fired and no one was injured during the raid, which lasted about 30 minutes. The gunmen were armed with M14 carbine rifles.

 

'INSIDE HELP'

The police also suspect that the seven gunmen had "inside help'' to get into the resort, adding that "anyone wanting to enter the resort area needed to be brought or let in by the resort staff".

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported that all 61 guests, 59 of them Chinese, decided to leave the resort yesterday morning.

Photos shared online show tourists crouching on the floor and men in uniforms with rifles and bulletproof vests, possibly Malaysian security personnel.

A West China Metropolis Daily journalist who was on vacation was the first to break the story, which went viral after being picked up by Chinese dailies.

Malaysian security forces searched nearby seas yesterday for the gunmen, reports said.

A kidnapping occurred in November last year at Pom Pom Island Resort in Semporna.

In that incident, Taiwanese businessman Li Min Shu, 58, was killed and his wife Chang An Wei, 57, was abducted by gunmen.

Ms Chang was released 36 days later for an unknown ransom paid via negotiations with the gunmen, who had held her in the Abu Sayaff stronghold of Jolo in the southern Philippines.

Wednesday's incident is another blow for the image of Sabah and for Malaysian tourism.

More than 200 armed Islamic guerillas from the Philippines staged a bizarre incursion of eastern Sabah last year, holding out for a month until they were crushed by a Malaysian military assault. Dozens of people were killed.

 

This article was published on April 4 in The New Paper.

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