Vietnam asks China to release fishermen

Aug 5, 2009, 4:56 GMT

   Hanoi - Vietnam has officially asked China to release a Vietnamese fishing boat and its thirteen crew who were seized by Chinese patrols August 1 while fleeing a storm, the Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan reported Thursday.

   'Vietnam sent a note Monday to the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi requesting China immediately release the 13 fishermen and their vessel,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said. Dung also demanded that China inform Vietnam about the fishermen's current situation.

   Vietnam will cancel an upcoming conference on fisheries with China unless the fishermen are released, Chu Tien Vinh, director of Vietnam's Aquatic Resources Exploitation and Protection Department (AREPD), told the newspaper Tuoi Tre Wednesday.

   Vinh said China stood to lose more than Vietnam from the cancellation, because its fishing fleet is larger.

   'If Vietnam cancels this conference, China will suffer the bigger loss, because it will not be allowed to send its fishing boats into the joint fishing area,' said Vinh.

   The fishermen were detained by Chinese patrols August 1 when they approached the Paracel Islands while trying to evade Tropical Storm Morakot in the South China Sea. The disputed Paracel Islands are claimed by China, Vietnam, and four other South-East Asian countries.

   Chinese forces are holding the fishermen at a Chinese military base on Phu Lam (Woody Island), the largest of the Paracels.

   Tensions over sovereignty in the South China Sea have risen since a May 13 deadline for countries to submit territorial claims to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Beijing rejected submissions by Malaysia, Vietnam and other countries as violating its own claims in the area.