HANOI: Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the disputed South China Sea, state media reported on Wednesday (Oct 2), with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels.
The men 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.
Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province told AFP: “They were Chinese, (the boats had) Chinese flags”.
Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed to hospital on Monday after arriving at Quang Ngai port, according to 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.
Party official Vuong – who chairs the people’s committee of Binh Chau, the commune where the fishermen live – said on Facebook he “strongly opposed the barbarous acts by China”.
Reached for comment on the incident, Beijing’s foreign ministry told AFP the “reports in question are not in line with the facts”, but acknowledged an incident took place.
“China has indisputable sovereignty over the Xisha Islands and their adjacent waters,” a 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.”
The foreign ministry in Vietnam did not reply to a request for comment from AFP.
Source: CNA
