Vietnam nabs Internet cable thieves
HANOI - Police in Vietnam have arrested three fishermen for stealing underwater telecommunications cable to sell for scrap, the newspaper Tien Phong reported Saturday.
The paper said police in southern Ba Ria - Vung Tau province arrested Tran Van Hoang, Nguyen Dang Quang and Pham Van Ke on Friday.
Hoang had been caught on May 22 while captaining a boat carrying 40 tons of stolen cable. Hoang had already been arrested once before while carrying stolen cable in nearby Soc Trang province, but was released.
Police said the three will be charged with violating article 231 of Vietnam's penal code by "damaging important works of national security."
Vietnam has seen an epidemic of theft of underwater fibre-optic cable after Ba Ria - Vung Tau passed a regulation last summer allowing fishermen to salvage leftover copper cable from the former South Vietnamese government, which fell to northern Communist forces in 1975. The harvesting of all cable was banned last month.
The harvesting of cable has sharply damaged Vietnam's international telecommunications capacities, forcing the country to shift over 80 per cent of its traffic onto the one underwater cable that is still functioning.
Ba Ria - Vung Tau province says it has seized 950 tons of stolen underwater cable so far this year, out of 1,600 tons seized nationwide.
Vietnamese press reported Thursday that 100 kilometres of cable will need to be replaced, at a cost of 5.8 million US dollars.
Deutsche Press Agentur - June 9, 2007.
|