HANOI: Vietnam’s foreign ministry condemned on Wednesday (Oct 2) China’s “brutal behaviour” during a violent attack on Vietnamese fishers in the disputed South China Sea.
The 10 fishermen were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars worth of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands – an archipelago in the resource-rich waterway claimed by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.
Vietnam “resolutely protests the brutal behaviour of Chinese law enforcement forces against Vietnamese fishermen and fishing vessels operating in the Hoang Sa archipelago of Vietnam”, foreign ministry spokesperson for Vietnam Pham Thu Hang said in a statement, using the Vietnamese term for the Paracel Islands.
“The above actions of Chinese law enforcement forces seriously violated Vietnam’s sovereignty” over the archipelago, the statement said.
Four of the Vietnamese crew were taken to hospital on Monday after arriving at Quang Ngai port, according to the state-run Tien Phong newspaper, which said the men were attacked by around 40 people for three hours.
“Wearing chequered clothes, they cruelly beat us with iron bars,” Captain Nguyen Thanh Bien was quoted as saying, adding that he fell unconscious for around an hour after the attack.
Footage on Tien Phong’s website showed the fishers being taken from their boat on stretchers. One had a broken leg and two suffered broken arms, the report said.
Captain Bien told authorities that around US$20,000 worth of equipment and fish had been stolen in the attack.
“INDISPUTABLE SOVEREIGNTY”
A spokesperson for Beijing’s foreign ministry told AFP the “reports in question are not in line with the facts”, but acknowledged an incident had taken place.
“China has indisputable sovereignty over the Xisha Islands and their adjacent waters,” the spokesperson said, using the Chinese name for the Paracel Islands.
“When Vietnamese fishing boats illegally fished in the relevant waters of the Xisha Islands without permission from the Chinese Government, the relevant Chinese authorities took measures to stop them in accordance with the law,” they said.
“The operation at the scene was carried out in a professional and restrained manner, without any personnel being injured.”
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/vietnam-fishermen-attacked-south-china-sea-state-media-4654081
