Zambia’s Foreign Minister Given Lubinda on Wednesday morning bounced when he went to Levy Mwanawasa hospital to visit the wounded Chinese nationals only to find they had been wisked from the hospital.
Sources at the hospital says the Chinese were not confortable and decided to whisk the patients away to an unknown place for security reasons. Though the hospital’s Spokesperson, Mwenya Mulenga said the Chinese nationals were discharged from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon after being certified that they were okay.
But the Minister was not informed and only discovered it Wednesday midmorning when he visited the hospital.
The three Chinese nationals were admitted to at the hospital in Lusaka after they were injured during the riot by Zambian workers at the Collum Coal Mine over the weekend.
The three male Chinese national Xu Baoynig 46, Huang Jiayou 51, and Cheng Wuumao 45 were first admitted at a Maamba hospital just near the Coal mine before they were evacuated to Lusaka. According to Mulenga the three had only minor head injuries and body lacerations.
The riot over delay by management to impliment the recently announced minimum wage left one chinese national dead. Police have since arrested 12 workers in connection with the riot with one of them chraged with murder.
The development has threatned the relationship between China and Zambia. The Chinese Ambassador to Zambia has called for a through investigation saying his people were now frightened. China has invested about 1 billion US$ in Zambia mining sector.
