~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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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.