Taiwan to Send Back Nine Hijackers From Mainland 　　The Taiwan authorities have decided to send back nine hijackers from the Chinese mainland, according to the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) on January 20. 　　ARATS expressed welcome to the Taiwan authorities' decision to return nine hijackers, and at the same time voiced the hope that the Taiwan authorities return all Chinese mainland hijackers still in the island as soon as possible. 　　In a letter to its Taiwan counterpart, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF),the ARATS asked the Taiwan department concerned to hand over all material evidence and documents involving the hijacking cases together with the nine hijackers. 　　The Red Cross Society of Fujian Province will contact the SEF to discuss the detailed arrangements for the handover of the hijackers, the letter said. 　　The ARATS also expressed the hope that the Taiwan authorities take into account the overall goal of jointly punishing hijacking criminals across the straits and return all the hijackers including the most recent hijacker Yuan Bin. 　　The ARATS wrote to the SEF in reply to its January 11 letter, which stated the Taiwan authorities' decision to return nine hijackers from the mainland. 　　The nine were Liu Baocai, Shi Yuebo, Yang Mingde, Wang Zhihua, Luo Changhua, Wang Yuying, Zou Weiqiang, Li Xiangyu and Lin Wenqiang. HomeNews 1999-01-21 Page4 Full Story in Chinese