In the latest economic relief package released Monday,interim President Adolfo Rodriguez Saa said business owners victimized by attacks over the past week must receive requital.

No details were available on how much money the shopkeepers would receive.

More than 500 stores run by Chinese were among the hardest hit in the riots, damaging everything from Chinese-owned mom-and-pop groceries to large retail centres.

Of 4,000 retail chain stores in the capital of Buenos Aires, 1,800 are operated by Chinese immigrants.

Still, many Chinese residents were unsatisfied.

Lin Guoxing, 49, relocated to Latin America in 1988, remained baffled. One of the three supermarkets in Buenos Aires owned by Lin was reduced to empty shelves and tatters, and Lin questioned the government's commitment to relief.

"I do not buy it right now," Lin said. "There is hardly anything concrete out there, and in a chaotic situation like this, it is simply a fantasy."

Lin estimated suffering economic losses of more than US$50,000. He also closed the other two stores out of fear of further looting.

The incident also came at an inopportune time, within days of the usually profitable Christmas and New Year holidays.

"Christmas Eve should have been the busiest day of the year," Lin said. "I were slated to more than double my regular business today but now it is nothing but a dream."

The worst of the rioting appeared to be subsiding in the capital since the weekend, when the interim government and interim president took over.

The angry masses had been acting out against the former government's austerity and overblown foreign debts.

A curfew was lifted and people began to disperse home for Christmas.

No Chinese people were killed in the rioting, according to an official from the Chinese Embassy in Buenos Aires. A relief fund is being collected within the community for the needy, the official said.

One Chinese restaurant owner named Chen held a meeting of about 50 Chinese business people Monday to discuss how to cope with the damage.

"Many people have been aided by friends and relatives, and other businessmen are delivering clothes and cash for immediacy,'' Chen said. "You know, as Chinese, it is a tradition that we help each other when in trouble."

Chen, who came to Argentina from Taiwan Province, said he did not suffer as his friends with supermarkets did.

"I did not close my restaurant during the riots," he said. "But business did take a dent as fewer customers came to consume. This year's business on Christmas Eve was unusually stagnant as people have little cash to spend."

Depressed business is a key concern now. With the peso, the nation's currency, losing its value and the government's freezing of bank accounts out of fears of massive withdrawing, consumption plummetted.

Lin is unsure when his shops will reopen.

"The situation was still uncertain, and all I can do is pray for luck," Lin said.

(China Daily December 25, 2001)