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Leaders, Officials of Foreign Countries, International Organizations Mourn China's Quake Victims

During the three-day national mourning from May 19 to 21, 2008, Chinese institutions overseas lowered the national flags to half-mast in mourning for the quake victims and Chinese embassies and consulates stationed in foreign countries opened condolence books. By 23:00 May 20, heads of state and government, parliamentary leaders and officials of international organizations from 72 countries across the world have visited Chinese embassies, consulates or missions to mourn victims of the Wenchuan earthquake.

The following are a list of them. The heads of state are Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf; French President Nicolas Sarkozy; Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza; Croatian President Stjepan Mesic; Mauritian President Anerood Jugnauth; Peruvian President Alan Garcia; Peruvian First Vice President Luis Giampietri Rojas; Guyana's acting President Samuel Hinds; Antigua and Barbuda's Governor-General Louise Lake-Tack. ROK President Lee Myung-bak sent a wreath in his name to the Chinese Embassy in Seoul.

The heads of government are Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani; Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung; Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh; Lao Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad; Nepali Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala; Azerbaijan's Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sharifov; Mauritanian Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed El Waghf; Equatorial Guinea's Prime Minister Ricardo Mangue Obama Nfube; British Prime Minister Gordon Brown; Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen; Antigua and Barbuda's Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer; Peruvian Prime Minister Jorge Del Castillo.

Parliamentary leaders include Speaker of the Burundian Senate Gervais Rufyikiri; Speaker of the French National Assembly Bernard Accoyer; President of Romania's Chamber of Deputies Bogdan Olteanu; Speaker of the Assembly of Macedonia Ljubisa Georgievski; President of the Chilean Senate Adolfo Zaldivar; President of Chile's Chamber of Deputies Juan Bustos.

Foreign officials who visited to express their condolences also include ROK Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ryu Myuang-hwan; Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigrant Affairs Fawzi Salloukh; Tajik Foreign Minister Khamrokhon Zarifi; Guinea Bissau's Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Overseas Maria da Conceicao Nobre Cabral; Foreign Minister of Cote d'Ivoire Youssouf Bakayoko; Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa; Madagascan Foreign Minister Marcel Ranjeva; Belarussian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov; Uzbek Foreign Minister Norov Vladimir Imamovich; French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Bernard Kouchner; Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith; Grenadian Foreign Minister Elvin Nimrod; Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro.

Other government officials who also visited include Burundian Minister of Defense and Veterans Germain Niyoyankana; Lesotho's Minister of Labor and Employment Moses Refiloe Masemene; Lesotho's Minister of Local Government Pontso Matumelo Sekatle; Lesotho's Minister of Tourism, Environment and Culture LebohangNts'inyi; Malian Minister of Basic Education, Eliminating Illiteracy, National Language Education Sidibe Aminata Diallo; Moroccan Minister of Communication and Spokesman of Government Khalid Naciri; Namibian National Defence Force chief Martin Shalli; Sri Lankan Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe; Israeli Minister of Tourism and Environmental Protection Gideon Ezra; New Zealand's Trade and Defence Minister Phil Goff. A dozen of Peruvian ministers and top military officials also visited to express condolences to the earthquake victims.

Some heads of international organizations who also visited the Chinese missions' locations to voice their sympathies include: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon; Director-General of World Trade Organization Pascal Lamy; Director-General of United Nations Office at Geneva Sergei Alexandrovitch Ordzhonikidze; Director-General of International Organization for Migration Brunson Mckinley; Leaders of International Telecommunication Union, World Meteorological Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants and Inter-Agency Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

In addition, Peru has set May 19 as a national mourning day for Chinese earthquake victims, when the Peruvian national flags at government and public buildings in the capital Lima were put at half-mast. In Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, air sirens sounded at 14:28 Beijing time on May 19 over the sky to mourn for the earthquake victims. The Tongan government has announced that national flags across the island country will be flying at half-mast on May 21 as a sign of mourning. The United Nations Office at Vienna has also said flags at its building will be put at half-mast on May 20 to mourn for the victims.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf

French President Nicolas Sarkozy

Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza

Mauritian President Anerood Jugnauth

Peruvian President Alan Garcia and Peruvian First Vice President Luis Giampietri Rojas

Guyana's acting President Samuel Hinds

Antigua and Barbuda's Governor-General Louise Lake-Tack

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung

Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh

Nepali Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala

Azerbaijan's Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sharifov

Mauritanian Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed El Waghf

Equatorial Guinea's Prime Minister Ricardo Mangue Obama Nfube

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown

Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen

Antigua and Barbuda's Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer

Speaker of the Assembly of Macedonia Ljubisa Georgievski

President of the Chilean Senate Adolfo Zaldivar

President of Chile's Chamber of Deputies Juan Bustos

Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigrant Affairs Fawzi Salloukh

Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa

Belarussian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov

Tajik Foreign Minister Khamrokhon Zarifi

French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Bernard Kouchner

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith

Grenadian Foreign Minister Elvin Nimrod

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon



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