Posted on 03/23/2003 7:39:31 PM PST by DeaconBenjamin
BEIJING - Police have arrested about 10 people suspected of involvement in a scheme to smuggle and sell 28 baby girls who were found in nylon bags on a bus in south-western China, an official said yesterday.
Local media reported the babies were all under three months old and that one had died after they were found early last week. The 27 surviving babies were in stable condition.
The authorities were trying to find the infants' parents, said a government official who only gave his surname, Tang.
'Some of the babies were abandoned, while others were abducted,' he said.
A photo in the Beijing Morning News yesterday showed some of the bags - about the size of standard gym bags - spread out on the ground in front of the bus.
The discovery occurred in the town of Binyang in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, one of the nation's poorest areas.
Mr Tang said he did not have additional details about the suspects or possible charges.
The Beijing Morning News said the smugglers might have drugged the infants to keep them from crying.
A police officer, who was not identified, said the youngest of the babies was only a few days old.
'They had been on the bus for four or five hours before they were found,' he said.
The cheeks of some of the babies had turned purplish as temperatures had dropped on the bus during the night.
The babies apparently were being smuggled for sale, though police did not know where they had come from or where they were being taken, the Beijing Morning News reported.
The paper said the bus had begun its journey in Yulin, a rural district of Guangxi, and was bound for the eastern province of Anhui.
Chinese officials say an unknown number of children are abducted every year for sale to childless families.
Older girls are sometimes sold as brides in rural areas with fewer women.
In rural China, families traditionally value boys more than girls because they are seen as carrying on the family name, working in the fields and caring for parents.
Yulin residents told the Beijing Morning News yesterday they were 'appalled' by the case.
'They thought it was unimaginable that someone would use this kind of inhumane method to transport infants,' the newspaper said.--AP, AFP
10 arrested over Chinese babies-in-bags smuggling horror
Here are a few others:
1. Indian babies sold to West for adoption
3. FBI investigates adoption Web site
A couple of domestic cases:
Brett, Regina. "Black-market Babies Search for Their Past." The Seattle Times Company (1997): 7 pages. Online. Internet.
"http://www.netaxs.com/~sparky/adoption/sold.html." (12-2-99).
"Adoptee Starts New Registry for 'Hicks Babies'."
The Oak Ridger (1998): 2 pages. Online. Internet.
http://www.oakridger.com/stories/012098/aps_adopt.html. (12-2-99).
Parker, Laura. "American Journal: Georgia Reunion Brings Together Children Sold in Adoption Business." USA Today (1997): 2 pages. Online. Internet.
http://www.detnews.com/1997/nation/9709/05/09050056.htm. (12-2-99).
"Silent Registry-The Hicks Clinic Registry-History." Silent Registry-The Hicks Clinic Registry (1999): 1 page. Online. Internet.
http://www.hicksclinic.com/history.htm. (12-2-99).
On the "coast-to-coast" radio show thay had a guy on a few weeks ago that claimed he had been in a type of "interpol" for kiddie abduction - usually related to pornography.
They would kill the guys in whatever country they found him. They would leave some of the "evidence" photos of the pervert with the kids (even babies) for the investigating local police to find. The local police would then treat it as a robbery gone bad, etc.