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Stories of Fishermen Shot by Chinese Navy
By Nguyen Trung (translated by Le Duc)
http://www.bbcvietnamese.com
Attempting to enter one of the Chinese controlled islands on the Paracel Islands in order to find safety from strong winds, the fishing boat of Tieu Viet La was shot by Chinese boat. The six men on the boat were injured, the one suffering the heaviest injury was Huynh Van Hung.
La who lived in the Binh Chau village, Chau Thuan commune, Binh Son, Quang Ngai Province told BBC:
The day my boat was shot was 27/6/2007. The place where we went to find shelter belonged to Chinese territory on the Paracel islands. Because that place was close to where we were fishing, so we came there to get away from the wind. When we saw their boat, we fled to sea, but the Chinese boat kept coming after and shooting at us. On our boat at that time there were 13 people.
BBC: Why didn’t you stop when you saw the Chinese boat?
Tieu Viet La: If we stopped they would confiscate all our goods and take us up the island to fine over 100 million dong. Because we feared being imprisoned, we had to flee. We thought that if we fled far away, they would stop shooting. When they let us go, the boat that we used that day was confiscated. It was a boat that I had to borrow money in order to buy.
Huynh Van Hung (26) who sustained an injury on his arm was hurt on his first trip out to sea. He comes from Phuoc Thien commune, Binh Hai village, Binh Son, Quang Ngai. Following is Hung’s account:
BBC: When the Chinese boat was shooting, what were you doing?
Huynh Van Hung: The afternoon when the shooting took place, the wind was very strong. When our boat made its way close to the island in order to find shelter, the naval boat came out. Because we saw uniformed officers armed with guns, we were afraid and fled. Mr. La (boat owner) was able to flee for a distance, then they started shooting. When that happened, I was so afraid, that I hid near the boat engine. Five or six of us cramped into that space. After that, we were shot.
When the boat owner saw that we were injured, he rushed into their islands in order to find emergency aid, or else we would die. After one night, they took us to Hainan island to be treated by doctors. Those who had light injuries were treated then released first. Three others and myself who had serious injuries were treated for about two months.
BBC: Did the Chinese boat shoot many rounds of bullets?
Huynh Van Hung: At first, I only heard a few rounds. But after that, I heard bang, bang, bang, then I was injured. All six of us hiding in the engine room were injured. When I was shot in the arm, I was very afraid. After that, I lost consciousness.
BBC: What was that area called?
Huynh Van Hung: I am not sure but the others tell me that the place where we were shot is called by fishermen as Phu Lam island on the Paracel archipelago.
BBC: How did the doctor treat your injury?
Huynh Van Hung: I was in the hospital in China for two months. The injury on my arm was treated only on the outside tissue, but not in the bone. When I returned to Vietnam, I came to an army hospital to seek treatment, but they didn’t dare to treat. They told me that there was serious infection on the injury. At the moment I cannot straighten my arm because my joints are stiff.
The doctors in Vietnam say that the nerve on my arm has been damaged. The bone has been broken. I have to wait a few years before it gradually grows out to heal. Right now there is still swelling and a lot of pain at the point of injury. The medical costs is tens of millions of dong. I have to borrow from family, friends, and neighbors.
Chinese Navy Shot and Injured 5 Vietnamese Fishermen
2007.07.21
The Chinese navy opened fire on Vietnamese fishing boats, injuring 5 fishermen, of which there was no media coverage from Beijing or Hanoi.
Japanese news agency Kyodo reported on the incident, quoting Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem as confirming that the conflict had occurred near the Spratly Islands region on July 9th and that an investigation by the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was underway. The Chinese Embassy in Hanoi denied knowledge of anything.
The news agency added that the Vietnamese fishing boats, presumably from Quang Nam, were shot and driven back by the Chinese navy on the basis of illegal fishing activities around the sea region that Beijing had laid claims to. No further information has yet been known about the fate of the five shot fishermen.
The sea battle in 1988 between China and Vietnam in the Spratly Islands region resulted in over 70 casualties on Vietnam's side. Beijing and Hanoi normalized relations in 1991 but ownership of the Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands has still been in tense dispute ever since.
(translated by Toan Khanh Nguyen)
© 2007 Radio Free Asia
Waiting for Fishermen to Return
Nguyen Trung (translated by Le Duc)
http://www.bbcvietnamese.com
For over a month, Nguyen Thi Chung who lives in Tay An Hai commune, Ly Son, Quang Ngai, has not heard from her husband even though she has already sent the money required for his release.
After being caught by Chinese boat while fishing in the area of the Paracel islands two months earlier, Duong Oanh had managed to make a few hurried calls home. He did not say much, other than telling her to hurry in sending the 120 million dong – an amount that was not small for fishermen who made their livelihood from the sea – in order to secure his release.
“Every time he called home all he said was try to get the money as soon as possible to send to China. He said once the money had been submitted, he would be released,” she said as eyes looked towards her downcast father-in-law who was constantly puffing on his cigarette.
Even though he did not say clearly about his conditions, Chung along with the family of 13 other fishermen who were also arrested along with her husband on the boat (bought last year with 400 million dong) tried to find the amount of money that Oanh asked for.
No news
Family members thought that after sending the money asked for by the captors, he would soon be released. But since the day the bank made the transfer until now, there has been no news from her husband.
She tried to call the number from which Oanh had called her, but was not able to meet her 36-year-old husband. Worrying because of the lack of news from her husband, she asked someone to help her write a letter to the Prime Minister to ask for intervention, or to call China in order to seek information about his condition and release date. But there was still no news. She could only sit and wait.
Facing the same situation as Chung is the family of Le Khoi (40 years old), also live in Tay An Hai commune. Thang, the younger brother of Khoi, reports that his brother was fishing in the vicinity that Chung’s husband was working when he was caught by Chinese boat.
In a somber voice, Thang recounts that Khoi had called home to tell them thay he and 13 others had been detained in China and the family had to send him nearly 130 million dong immediately. Similar to Chung, Khoi’s family sent the money to China over a month ago according to the account number given. But since then, Khoi had not been able to contact the family.
Thang said, “The Quang Ngai police recently announced that about 1 October, China would release the boat and the fishermen, but we haven’t seen anything.”
In the matter of fishermen being arrested on the sea, Le Van Ninh, the vice-chair of the Ly Son island, says each year there are about four to five cases of fishermen encountering “calamity” on the waters being disputed.
He said: “The fishermen usually are arrested in the disputed areas of Paracel and Spratly islands. They are arrested by patrol forces of China or Malaysia. They have to pay fines. The government does not support them financially but help them to stabilize their life after they return home.”
Dispute
On 28 February 2007 Nguyen Van Danh along with 11 others left the port for Paracel islands. After they dropped anchor there for a little over an hour, they were arrested. The people who arrested them asked for money for their release in the amount of 70,000 Chinese yuan.
According to Danh, the area in which his boat usually fish in the Eastern Sea is located in a disputed area. He said, “On the Vietnamese map, the area where I am arrested belongs to Vietnam. When I show them the map and tell them that this place belonged to Vietnam, they did not agree.”
Danh had to stop going to sea temporarily after he returned from China. He said the economy of the family suffered greatly after he was captured.
He continued: “When they catch us, there’s nothing we can do because we don’t know Chinese. What’s more, with guns like theirs all we can do is give up. The forces who caught us was fully equiped and had about 50 people.
Even when his boat was released, everything on the boat was confiscated except for the amount of gasoline enough to go home. According to the coastguard report, in the first 8 months of 2007, forces (of countries sharing maritime borders with Vietnam) shot to death 2 people, injured 8 others, and asked for fines of 130,000 USD.
In that, since the beginning of the year until now, 9 boats from Ly Son had been arrested along with 126 fishermen.
On the fishing map, the people are warned not to go near islands on the Paracel and Spratly archipelagos temporarily under the control of ther countries. Commander Le Phuc Nguyen, the vice-editor of the People’s Army newspaper, used to comment in The Straits Times: “It is very difficult for fishermen to know exactly where the borders between the two sides lie.”
Chinese Harrassment of Vietnamese Fishermen in Vietnam’s Own Waters
By Le Duc
Even though the disputes in the South China Sea over the two archipelagos of Paracel and Spratly between Vietnam, China, and other countries in the region have not been resolved, China continues to display actions of arrogance and expansionism over the region despite having signed the 2002 Declaration of Conduct with ASEAN.
One of the most notorious actions of China that blatantly violates the 2002 DOC is the continual harrassment of Vietnamese fishermen in the South China Sea. On the night of 8 January 2005, Chinese navy shot and killed 9 Vietnamese fishermen and injured 8 others. The ones who did not die were captured and taken to China. The incident occurred in the Gulf of Tokin, 10 miles west of the nearest common fishing water, which is well within the Vietnamese territorial waters.
Chinese authority claimed that these fishermen were armed robbers. But by the look of their small wooden boat, they looked like anything but sea pirates. "They fiercely attacked us with the intention of killing the crew to steal the boat rather than just stealing our boat," Pham Van Quang, one of the survivors of the attack said. Nguyen Phi Phuong, the owner of the boat added, "In recent months, local boats have been attacked by Chinese fishing boats in the Gulf of Tonkin but this time I cannot imagine Chinese boats attacking my boat so savagely."
Vietnamese fishermen being captured by Chinese navy is a regular thing that happens in the South China Sea. Just in the month of December 2004, 80 Vietnamese were captured by the Chinese navy. Just in the first six months of 2007, five boats and 60 men were seized.
On 26 June 2007, five Vietnamese fishermen were shot and injured near the Paracel islands while they tried to approach a Chinese controlled island in order to escape strong winds that were endangering their boat. According to the victims, as soon as the Chinese navy saw the boat, it went after the fishermen who fled out to sea again. However, the Chinese boat did not let them go but followed and continued to shoot at the fishermen’s boat, which would eventually be seized when the men had to stop and seek emergency for the injured. The Paracel islands is presently under Chinese control after China invaded it and illegally took it from Vietnam in 1974.
Captured Vietnamese fishermen are made to pay an exhorbitant fine before they are let go. That is the reason why Tieu Viet La, the owner of the boat shot by the Chinese navy tried to flee. “If we stopped they would confiscate all our goods and take us up the island to fine over 100 million dong. Because we feared being imprisoned, we had to flee. We thought that if we fled far away, they would stop shooting. When they let us go, the boat that we used that day was confiscated. It was a boat that I had to borrow money in order to buy,” he said.
On 21 August 2007, 28 fishermen were captured a little bit north of the Spratly islands and brought to Hainan island. They were then told to have their family transfer 120,000 yuan (about 16,000 dollars) to a bank account in China as fine. This is a tremendous sum for these poor fishermen.
The encounters between the Chinese navy and Vietnamese fishermen always put the poor fishermen at a disadvantage. When caught, the fishermen are told that they have violated Chinese waters. When the fishermen show them the map that indicates that they had been fishing in Vietnamese territories, Chinese navy would dismiss their claims. But there is not much choice for the fishermen because their small boats could do little against Chinese navy boats with uniformed officers, guns, and canons. Vietnamese fishermen also cannot speak Chinese which prevents them from making their case against their captors. Even though the Vietnamese government does not recognize Chinese authority in the Spratly islands, when the encounters take place at sea, it’s the Chinese with the big guns and boats who decide what happens to the fishermen.
Chinese execution of its hegemonic ambitions in the South China Sea, if successful, would claim 80% of the waters as Chinese territories. Even though disputes have not been resolved, partly because China consistently refuses to settle the matter through the International Court or International Arbitrator due to its lack of confidence in its legal claims to the archipelagos, China resorts to using its military prowess to control the sea, at the perils of poor fishermen trying to make a living.
On the other hand, fishermen coming from China into the areas are well protected by its own navy, which also makes regular patrols to protect its “territories”. The Chinese navy makes patrol trips as close as 40 nautical miles from Vietnam mainland. According to the Vietnamese coast guard, in the entire year of 2004, over 1,100 illegal incursions were made by Chinese patrol boats into Vietnamese waters. Even though Vietnamese goastguard gives warnings and protests, these actions are too weak to scare away the Chinese navy personnelle.
The calamity that Vietnamese fishermen are facing in the South China Sea will not go away any time soon because China continues to claim that it has indisputable rights to these archipelagos and the surrounding waters, and uses brute force to put these claims in practice. The only thing that no one can help but be puzzled at, is how China could claim 80% of the South China Sea based on its claims of two small archipelagos that are uninhabitable. Can little islands count much more than even an entire country’s coastline?
China "Hits" then "Calls for Help"
By Le Duc
17 January 2008
On 15 January 2008, about 80 miles offshore of Vietnam, a Vietnamese fishing boat belonging to fishermen from Phu Yen Province was sunken due to collision with another vessel, which the Vietnamese government controlled press only reported as a "strange" boat. The boat PY 91234-TS with its 10 fishermen have gone down, and all ten are feared to have died. The incident took place in the vicinity of the disputed Spratly islands.
While the Vietnamese news agencies only used to word "strange" to refer to the boat that caused the Vietnamese fishing boat to go down, for the Vietnamese public, it is almost an automatic code word that refers to Chinese navy boat. However, for complicated international political reasons, straight forward mention of the perpetrator is still often not done by the Vietnamese official press. Nonetheless, while the news agencies inside Vietnam has not made the direct identification, other sources have confirmed that the boat responsible for the collision was a Chinese boat.
Vietnamese fishermen meeting calamity at the hand of the Chinese navy boats in the disputed waters of the South China Sea has become a regular affair. Incidents that occur range from fishing boats and its occupants being chased, captured, and sunken to being shot at and killed by the Chinese navy patrol boats.
While Vietnamese people have not gotten over the lastest shock with fellow fishermen, they have become even more alarmed when today, China itself has accused Vietnamese bandits in the Gulf of Tonkin of robbing Chinese fishing boats on 7 January 2008.
According to the People's Daily website, up to 10 Chinese boats fishing in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin were attacked by more than 10 armed Vietnamese fishing boats early on the morning of January 7. The Chinese newspaper reports that while there were no fatalities, Chinese boats were struck by bullets and the Vietnamese robbers made off with their fishing equipments.
After the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu requested that Vietnam seriously look into the matter, initial investigations show that the story told by the Chinese side is not consistent with what has been discovered by the Vietnamese government.
According to the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Dung, there was no such thing as armed Vietnamese boats attacking Chinese fishermen. In the process of fishing on the sea, the fishing nets of 4 Chinese boats became entangled with those of 3 Vietnamese boats. After they managed to separate the nets, both sides went back to their business of fishing. According to VTV News broadcast, the Vietnamese government will continue to look into the matter and has asked the Chinese government to provide more evidence for its accusations.
The Chinese government describing Vietnamese fishermen as "pirates" and "robbers" is nothing new. This is essentially the single reason justifying the various incidents in which the Chinese boats hunted down Vietnamese fishermen causing tension to increase between the two neighbors. The bloodiest recent Chinese shooting of Vietnamese fishermen took place on the Gulf of Tonkin on January 8, 2005 when 9 were killed, and eight more were injured.
Many Vietnamese are outraged that the Chinese government attempted to deflect attention from the 15 January incident by making up and exaggerating things that never took place in the Gulf of Tonkin on 7 January. Many ask why is it that the Chinese government took ten days to come out with official statements about the Gulf of Tonkin incident, and only 2 days after the sinking of the Vietnamese boat near Spratly. If the situation were indeed serious, then why did China not issue a statement sooner?
The fact that China seems to be conjuring up incidents in order to make VIetnamese fishermen turn into the bad guys before the world, when China itself is doing the attacking and killing of innocent fishermen are making Vietnamese people outraged. Many wonder if this is part of China's ongoing plot to fulfill its hegemonic ambitions in the South China Sea, and are waiting for more actions from this expanding super power after the Olympics in Beijing this year is over with.
Dead Fishermen in the January 15, 2008 Incident
1. Nguyễn Văn Gọi (boat captain)- 1973
2. Nguyễn Văn Điện (brother of Gọi) - 1970. Dien's wife, Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, can only embrace their children in constant sobbing for the lost life of husband and father. No one knows how their future will be now that there is no one to depend on for a living. Dien loaned 120 million dong to buy equipments. Calamity fell after only two trips to sea.
3. Dương Chung - 1979
4. Mai Xuân Phương - 1966
5. Đào Văn Sen - 1978. Sen leaves behind a wife and four children. The oldest is 10, the youngest is 6. The family has no land, no field. Everyone depended on him to eat. "In the years left, we don't know who to depend on to live," said his wife Nguyen Thi Hop.
6. Trần Vương - 1979
7. Võ Chương - birthdate unknown
8. Nguyễn Kỳ Quí - 1983
9. Đặng Kim Hùng - 1984
10. Đặng Kim Hào - 1986 (brother of Dang Kim Hung). Before their trip, the two brothers promised to buy new clothes for their younger siblings to wear for the traditional Vietnamese New Year. Their promise could not be realized.
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