Vietnam protests Chinese mistreatment of fishermen

Oct 22, 2009, 10:16 GMT

   Hanoi - Vietnam has officially protested Chinese mistreatment of Vietnamese fishermen who took shelter from a typhoon last month on the disputed Paracel Islands, a government spokeswoman said Thursday.

   Nguyen Phuong Nga said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered a letter Wednesday to China's ambassador in Hanoi complaining that Chinese armed forces had beaten and robbed the fishermen.

   Chinese Ambassador Sun Guoxiang said his government would verify the information and inform Vietnam of its response soon, Nga said.

   The state-run Vietnam News reported Thursday that the letter demanded China discipline those responsible, return the fishermen's belongings and compensate them for damages.

   According to the Vietnam Fishery Association, 16 fishing boats and their crew members from the central province of Quang Ngai were fired on in late September when they tried to land on Woody Island, the largest of the Paracels, to escape Typhoon Ketsana.

   After sheltering on the islands for several days, the fishermen were robbed and beaten by Chinese forces before leaving, the association said.

   It said Vietnam and China have an agreement that fishermen from each country can ride out storms in the other's territory.

   The Paracels are claimed by Vietnam, China and Taiwan. Chinese naval forces seized them from the former South Vietnam in 1974.

   Tensions over sovereignty in the South China Sea have risen since May, when regional countries submitted their 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.