China jails six Myanmar human traffickers

BEIJING, Dec 7 (Reuters) Six Myanmar nationals have been jailed for life or other ''fixed terms'' for selling 23 Myanmar girls to Chinese peasants as wives, Xinhua news agency said.

The Higher People's Court in the eastern province of Anhui handed down final verdicts to the six who smuggled the girls from Myanmar last year, Xinhua said late yesterday.

The court also ordered the six to be deported after serving their sentences, it said, adding the victims had been ''rescued''.

It did not give further details.

There has been a rise in trafficking cases involving Myanmar women in China in recent years.

The women are mostly smuggled through the porous border into the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan and then taken to central and north China, where poverty and a skewed sex ratio means many farmers cannot find wives.

But Chinese media say many of the women leave Myanmar, one of the world's 50 least developed countries according to the United Nations, voluntarily and the traffickers are often their fellow villagers who are already married to Chinese husbands.

Earlier this year, police in the impoverished inland province of Henan rounded up 69 women from Myanmar who had been sold to local farmers for as little as 20,000 yuan ( BEIJING, Dec 7 (Reuters) Six Myanmar nationals have been jailed for life or other ''fixed terms'' for selling 23 Myanmar girls to Chinese peasants as wives, Xinhua news agency said.

The Higher People's Court in the eastern province of Anhui handed down final verdicts to the six who smuggled the girls from Myanmar last year, Xinhua said late yesterday.

The court also ordered the six to be deported after serving their sentences, it said, adding the victims had been ''rescued''.

It did not give further details.

There has been a rise in trafficking cases involving Myanmar women in China in recent years.

The women are mostly smuggled through the porous border into the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan and then taken to central and north China, where poverty and a skewed sex ratio means many farmers cannot find wives.

But Chinese media say many of the women leave Myanmar, one of the world's 50 least developed countries according to the United Nations, voluntarily and the traffickers are often their fellow villagers who are already married to Chinese husbands.

Earlier this year, police in the impoverished inland province of Henan rounded up 69 women from Myanmar who had been sold to local farmers for as little as 20,000 yuan ($2,500) each, a Chinese newspaper said in June.

The newspaper said many of the women knew they were going to marry a Chinese husband before they left Myanmar and did so willingly to pursue a better life, although police insisted this was a case of human trafficking.

China has resorted to harsh punishments, including the death penalty, to deter human trafficking. The UN Children's Fund says 250,000 Chinese women and children fell victim to trafficking in 2003.

REUTERS PB VC1025 ,500) each, a Chinese newspaper said in June.

The newspaper said many of the women knew they were going to marry a Chinese husband before they left Myanmar and did so willingly to pursue a better life, although police insisted this was a case of human trafficking.

China has resorted to harsh punishments, including the death penalty, to deter human trafficking. The UN Children's Fund says 250,000 Chinese women and children fell victim to trafficking in 2003.

REUTERS PB VC1025