The Chinese Embassy in Bishkek is working to ensure the security of the 10,000 Chinese nationals in Kyrgyzstan, arranging for special planes and cars to evacuate those who want to return to China.

It set up an emergency hotline 00996-312-610858 on Friday, and has received calls from more than 200 people who wanted to leave fearing for their safety, after at least four Chinese business people were injured by looters in riots.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Jianchao warned Chinese citizens on Friday against non-essential travel. Widespread looting broke out after opposition supporters seized the presidential headquarters and ousted Askar Akayev's government from power.

Many shops in Bishkek have been ransacked during violence and vandalism since Thursday, resulting in economic losses of at least US$8 million for dozens of Chinese businesses.

"The unrest has caused the worst economic damage to Chinese traders in Kyrgyzstan in more than 10 years of bilateral ties," Xinhua quoted the embassy as saying.

Fortunately, order was starting to return to the capital on Saturday as parliament convened and set a presidential election for June 26.

But most shops remained closed as business people used huge stones to block up the doors of their outlets or welded gates and windows shut, according to Xinhua.

One Chinese businessman from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, named Hawier, was quoted as saying: "I told my two children again and again not to go outside … At this time, life and family are much more important than goods or money."

He said he hoped the tensions would calm and his business in Bishkek resume normal trading as soon as possible.

China was poised to reopen its border with Kyrgyzstan yesterday, local border patrol officials said.

One of two border crossings had been shut on Friday, whilst the other, connecting the remote western Chinese city of Kashgar with Bishkek, closed over the weekend.

Xinhua reported that two of the four Chinese people injured in riots on Thursday night have left hospital and the other two are no longer in a serious condition.

More than 4,000 locals armed with sticks, stones and iron rods had rushed into a Chinese clothing market in the eastern part of Bishkek, and the 300 business people there at that time could not repel them.

The market, with monthly trade revenue of US$20 million, was reduced to a mass of debris and empty shelves and containers.

In other parts of the city countless shops along the main streets had their windows smashed and goods plundered.

The Guoying Trading Center, a locally renowned prosperous shopping mall owned by Chinese traders, was also gutted the same night, clearly the result of arson.

The four-storey building was covered in soot, with goods pillaged and windows shattered. No casualties were reported at the center.

(China Daily March 28, 2005)