By GILLIAN WONG,Associated Press Writer Asian Defense News: BEIJING – Eight Chinese peacekeepers working in Haiti were missing after being buried by a building collapse in a massive earthquake that decimated the Caribbean country's capital, the Chinese government said.
The State Council and the Public Security Ministry said in separate statements late Wednesday that the eight Chinese peacekeepers were in a meeting with U.N. officials inside the headquarters building for the U.N. peacekeeping mission when it collapsed in the magnitude 7.0 earthquake.
The ministry did not say if the missing were believed alive or dead, and says the rest of China's 142 peacekeeping police in Haiti are safe.
China's Cabinet, the State Council, said the Red Cross Society of China has pledged to donate $1 million of emergency aid to Haiti. It said in a statement on its Web site China has deployed a team of 60 relief personnel to Haiti that includes search and rescue crew, medics and seismological experts.
The team will bring rescue, communications and security equipment as well as 10 tons of food, medicine and other supplies.
The earthquake was the most powerful to hit Haiti in more than 200 years.
The State Council and the Public Security Ministry said in separate statements late Wednesday that the eight Chinese peacekeepers were in a meeting with U.N. officials inside the headquarters building for the U.N. peacekeeping mission when it collapsed in the magnitude 7.0 earthquake.
The ministry did not say if the missing were believed alive or dead, and says the rest of China's 142 peacekeeping police in Haiti are safe.
China's Cabinet, the State Council, said the Red Cross Society of China has pledged to donate $1 million of emergency aid to Haiti. It said in a statement on its Web site China has deployed a team of 60 relief personnel to Haiti that includes search and rescue crew, medics and seismological experts.
The team will bring rescue, communications and security equipment as well as 10 tons of food, medicine and other supplies.
The earthquake was the most powerful to hit Haiti in more than 200 years.
