Taipei, June 16 (Central News Agency, Taiwan) The semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said Tuesday that it had contacted its Chinese counterpart to help in issues relating to the death of two Taiwanese businessmen murdered by a Chinese man a day earlier in Dongguan, Guangdong Province.

Chen Jung-yuan, director of the SEF's trade and commerce department, said it sent a letter on Monday to the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) asking for its assistance in dealing with the murders after the news reached Taipei from Donguan's Dalang township.

The SEF is also helping the families of the Taiwanese victims to travel to Dongguan Wednesday to take care of their relatives' remains, Chen said.

The three men are all from central Taiwan's Taichung County.

The Taiwanese victims were Lin Yu-teng, a 33-year-old general manager of a Taiwanese-owned hardware factory, the factory's 40-year-old manager named Lai Chen-jui and its 50-year-old deputy general manager Shao Cheng-chi. The three men were attacked Monday at the factory's main gate by Liu Hanhuang, a 26-year-old worker from Guizhou Province, after negotiations on compensation for Liu's work-related injury broke down earlier the same day, China's official Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese security officers as saying.

Liu's right hand was damaged by a machine while he was at work last September and had to be amputated.

Although the company has paid out compensation of 50,000 yuan (US$7,315) for Liu's injury in line with local labor laws, Liu was not satisfied and filed a complaint against the company.

Although Liu and the company executives had agreed to start talks on the issue again that day, Liu intercepted Lai at the main gate as he was preparing to leave the company.

Liu and Lai had a fierce quarrel into which Lin and Shao were drawn.

During the argument, Liu pulled out a knife and stabbed the three men, Xinhua said.

Shao was killed on the spot, while Lin was pronounced dead after being rushed to a nearby hospital. Lai was seriously injured and had to undergo emergency treatment at a hospital. Liu was arrested by Dongguan public security officials near the factory.

The incident was the first labor dispute-related murder involving a Taiwanese-invested business in Dongguan.

The Taipei-based SEF is an intermediary organization responsible for cross-Taiwan Strait exchanges through dealings with the ARATS in the absence of government-to-government contact.

(By Flor Wang)