Chinese police detain Myanmar women sold as wives

BEIJING, June 16 (Reuters) Chinese police in the poor, inland province of Henan have rounded up 69 women from Myanmar who were sold to farmers unable to find local wives, a Chinese newspaper today said.

The women were smuggled into Xincai county from the former Burma some 4,000 km away, and sold for as much as 20,000 yuan each, the Southern Metropolis Daily said on its Web site www.nanfangdaily.com.cn).

It quoted Zhao Heihai, 28, as saying he thought Myanmar was a place in southwest China's border province of Yunnan, and only found out otherwise on the second day of his wedding when a fellow villager congratulated him for marrying a foreigner.

Four days later, police took away his 20-year-old bride Chen Xiaosi.

''She complained about poor living standards in her home town and said men there were lazy, alcoholic and beat wives,'' Zhao said. ''Many are also drug addicts.'' Myanmar, one of the world's 50 least developed countries according to the United Nations, is widely criticised for its human rights abuses.

The newspaper said many of the women knew they were going to marry a Chinese husband at the very start of their trip and did so willingly to pursue a better life, although police said this was a case of human trafficking.

The paper also blamed a skewed sex ratio in rural China for the problem, saying that in some villages there were seven men for every woman.

REUTERS SB RK1648