Pirates plague Vietnamese fishermen
HO CHI MINH CITY - As the number of incidents of
armed pirates attacking fishing boats in the sea
southwest of Vietnam near the border with Cambodia have
increased, the country's coast guard have been
scrambling to keep the sea safe for fishermen.
Nguyen Thanh Kiet was hijacked in July by armed
pirates off the Vietnamese coast. "We were operating
offshore in Song Doc Sea when 15 gunmen on a motorboat
approached us and ordered us not to resist," said Kiet,
a fishing-boat owner in Vietnam's Ca Mau province.
Unarmed, Kiet and his crew could do nothing more than
surrender. The bandits towed Kiet's fishing boat to Hon
Thom island near Cambodia, where they demanded ransom
totaling US$4,500. They never got the money and the
episode ended with the pirates sailing off with a
100-amp battery and 120 liters of gasoline from the
fishing boat.
"Since January this year there
have been 14 cases of piracy on the Song Doc Sea
separating Ca Mau province and Cambodia," said Major Luu
Hoang Ha, chief of the coast guard post at Song Doc.
According to locals, several organized pirate
groups dominate the local waters - some are from
Cambodia but others come from Indonesia, Malaysia and
Thailand. However, all claim to be the sole "power"
governing the seas.
"Indonesian pirates are the
worst because they never ask for ransom. They simply
kill the crew and take their fishing facilities," said
Tran Thuan, a 35-year-old fisherman who in late August
escaped one of the worst pirate attacks on record here.
"Fifteen masked gunmen on two motorboats landed on our
boat, killed Nguyen Van Be [the captain of the boat] and
ordered us to jump off board," Tran said. The bandits
then tried to make their way to Cambodia on their boat
but were forced to abandon the ship when the engine
broke down.
"Pirates are adopting more and more
violent tactics against fishing boats operating along
Vietnam's coast, especially on waters between Vietnam
and Cambodia," said Nguyen Van Chau, head of the
Protection of Marine Resources Department under the
Ministry of Fisheries (MoF). "The situation has become
especially critical in the last seven years with at
least 74 cases of piracy, eight people killed and 12
injured," he said, speaking at a seminar organized on
October 28 in Hanoi to review the protection of marine
resources and the fishing industry in Vietnam.
However, observers believe Chau's figures to be
overly conservative. According to figures compiled from
newspaper reports, during 2001 and the first two months
of 2002, there were 150 cases of fishing boats being
attacked by pirates in offshore Ca Mau province.
Forty-five fishing boats were attacked by pirates
operating between Kien Giang province in Vietnam and Kep
in Kampot province in Cambodia during the first half of
2002, newspaper reports suggested. But only three
arrests for sea piracy were recorded during the same
period according to police and coast guard records.
"We are under pressure from the fishing industry
to reduce the risk to fishermen as pirates become more
and more active and dangerous," said Major-General Tang
Hue, deputy commander of Vietnam's coast guard. Tang
said that forces involved in the fight against piracy
were poorly trained and badly equipped to adequately
control Vietnam's vast domestic waters. "Criminals
usually operate at night and leave no trace," he said,
explaining why coast guard police capture so few
pirates.
"Piracies could not be wiped out unless
a clear demarcation between Cambodia and Vietnam is set
up," Colonel Nguyen Ha, commander of Kien Giang province
coast guard said. More coordinated diplomatic efforts
between Vietnam and Cambodia could help reduce the harm
caused by pirates who flee Vietnam waters and take
refuge on Cambodia's islands, he said.
In 2001
Cambodia and Vietnam signed a memorandum of
understanding on sea and land security committing the
neighbors to greater intelligence sharing and patrolling
efforts, but so far cooperation between the security
agencies remains occasional.
Officials from Kien
Giang province, where most of the pirate strikes take
place in Vietnam, say their many requests to seek
assistance from Cambodia to fight piracy at sea has
fallen on deaf ears. "We should repeat our request
constantly - weekly, monthly and quarterly if
necessary," Colonel Nguyen Ha said. "In the meantime we
should be better equipped with higher-speed motorboats
and heavier machine-guns with which to patrol the sea
day and night."
On Sunday, two high-speed
motorboats armed with powerful machine-guns patrolling
the Phu Quoc Island Sea caught three pirates red-handed
attacking a local fishing boat. "The triumph has brought
more confidence to local fishermen," Nguyen said.
But despite the success, more needs to be done
to equip the coast guards with the surveillance
capability and firepower they need to prevent pirates
from taking control of the seas, he said. "In the
meantime the most effective way," he said, "is to tell
local fishermen not to fish near the areas infected with
pirates."
By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam - Inter Press Service - November 12, 2002.
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