NEWS - Guangxi Arrests Hijackers of

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Subject: NEWS - Guangxi Arrests Hijackers of Cargo Ship, 14 people of

Myanmar nationality
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Guangxi Arrests Hijackers of Cargo Ship, 14 people of Myanmar
nationality

               Xinhua
               04-AUG-99

               NANNING (Aug. 4) XINHUA - Police in the Guangxi Zhuang
               Autonomous Region have arrested 14 people of Myanmar
               nationality for involvement in the armed hijack of a
               Panama-registered freighter. 

               The ship, the Marine Fortuner, was returned today to Ms
Liu
               Jinxiu, its owner and chairman of the board of a Taiwan
               investment company. 

               The Public Security Bureau of Guangxi and the
               Fangchenggang City government jointly held a press
               conference today to clarify the armed hijack case and a
               ceremony to hand over the ship in Fangchenggang City. 

               The ship left for Taiwan earlier today. The ship left
Nantong
               Port in east China's Jiangsu Province March 1 this year,
               carrying over 6,000 tons of soda, and was heading for
India
               when it was hijacked by over 20 armed pirates on March
17. 

               The International Maritime Bureau later issued a circular
to
               ports worldwide concerning the lost ship. 

               When the "Nuovo Tierra", a ship supposedly registered in
               Honduras, put in at Fangchenggang for maintenance, the
               harbor administration found that the technical data of
the
               ship were the same as those of the "Marine Fortuner". The
               administration then detained the ship. 

               The public security department of Guangxi confirmed that
               after a thorough investigation that the Nuovo Tierra was
in
               fact the lost ship. 

               The 14 crew members confessed that they had taken part in
               the armed hijack.