Eight Vietnamese fishermen killed by Chinese border guards
HANOI - Chinese border guards have killed eight Vietnamese fishermen who strayed into Chinese waters, a Vietnamese official said. The guards opened fire on two fishing vessels during the night of January 9, he said.
"Chinese officials informed us that eight Vietnamese fishermen were killed and we are trying to verify the information," said Do Hong, secretary of the People's Committee of Hoa Loc village, in Thanh Hoa province, where the victims were born. "They also told us the incident was connected to fishing disputes in a litigious maritime zone."
One of the boats returned to port on Tuesday with one dead crew member and three injured, while the other vessel which set sail with 16 crew was being held on China's Hainan island. Do said he had been told that the incident took place off the Thanh Hoa coast -- which faces Hainan -- in the Gulf of Tonkin, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Hanoi. China and Vietnam have several times agreed to speed up implementation of accords to resolve disputed land and sea borders.
Both sides said they would conform to the Beibu or Tonkin Gulf demarcation agreement and the fisheries cooperation agreement and pledged "not to take extreme action or make use of force" on fisheries-related issues. The countries are ideological comrades but historical foes. China invaded Vietnam in February 1979 following Hanoi's intervention in Cambodia to oust Beijing's Khmer Rouge allies.
They came to blows again in 1988 in the disputed Spratly Islands, a potentially oil-rich archipelago in the South China Sea. Relations were normalised in 1991.
Agence France Presse - January 13, 2005
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