Call for abducted policeman's return
Taipei yesterday urged Beijing to return a Taiwanese marine policeman said to have been abducted to Fujian province by mainland fishermen after officers tried to apprehend them in the Taiwan Strait.
Chang King-yuh, chairman of the Cabinet's Mainland Affairs Council, urged officials at the Straits Exchange Foundation to work for officer Chuang Chen-yao's immediate release.
Chang Liang-jen, a deputy secretary-general at the foundation, said he was confident the officer would eventually be returned home safely, since a precedent had already been set for such cases.
A group of Taiwanese marine police officers taken captive aboard a mainland smuggling vessel in 1991 was sent back home by air via Hong Kong after spending a month on the mainland, he said.
The foundation's mainland counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, had told the foundation Mr Chuang had been released and was being treated for hand injuries at a hospital in Fujian's Changle County.
Mr Chuang suffered severe cuts to his hand, apparently in an axe attack, the association said.
Saturday's incident occurred off the shore of Chukuang, one of the remotest frontline islands held by Taiwan forces off Fujian.
Nine marine police officers boarded the fishing vessel after suspecting it of conducting cross-strait smuggling, but eight were forced to jump overboard after the mainland fishermen allegedly attacked them with knives, broken bottles and axes before fleeing to mainland waters.
The foundation asked the mainland to prosecute the fishermen, but no assurances had been received yet, the foundation's Mr Chang said.
