Chinese officer killed in Vietnam border incident
BEIJING - A Chinese paramilitary police officer was killed and another
seriously injured during an armed clash on the China-Vietnam border
early
this month, local officials said on Friday.
An official with a local civil defence department in the southwestern
province of Yunnan said the incident occurred on May 4 when a patrol
crossed
into Vietnam during a pursuit of a criminal gang.
"Our armed police troops were pursuing some criminals involved in
gun-related crimes and crossed over into Vietnam and they were ambushed
by
Vietnamese police," said the official from the border county of Hekou,
just
across the border from the Vietnamese town of Lao Cai.
A doctor at a local hospital said an injured officer was treated for
gunshot
wounds there on May 6, but he was later transferred to a military
hospital.
Local government and police officials declined comment, but a Vietnamese
diplomat said the incident had been resolved.
"I heard about the incident on May 4. The two sides have resolved it,"
the
diplomat said. He declined to elaborate.
In 1979, China launched a brief but bloody border war to punish Hanoi
for
ousting the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, but ties have improved since
normalisation in 1991, despite competing claims over islands in the
South
China Sea.
Reuters - May 31, 2002
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