Quang Ngai determined that fishermen not pay fine to China

Ly Son district’s vice chairman Nguyen Xuan Huoc also confirmed that the district would not let’s its fishermen pay the “absurd” fines to China to redeem boats and sailors.

“A Chinese patrol ship arrested 37 fishermen of Ly Son district, Quang Ngai province while they were catching in the sea off the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands. This is a violation of the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea,” Huoc said.

Quang Ngai authorities asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to intervene by asking China to release the 12 arrested fishermen. They also asked coastal districts to advise their fishermen to group together when they go to the seas of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa (Spratly) for catching.

“The sea of Hoang Sa belongs to Vietnam; Vietnamese fishermen don’t have to be afraid of catching fish in Vietnamese waters,” Huoc said.

According to him, the state needs to have timely assistance policies for fishermen so they can feel reassured about going out to sea.

“Fishermen working on the sea of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa play a very important role in protecting Vietnam’s sovereignty over its water territories,” Huoc added.

Ly Son district’s chairman Vo Xuan Huyen said the district was waiting for new developments in the case and they had prepared a big fishing boat to pick up the 12 fishermen.

“This is the first time fishermen couldn’t take care of it because the fine was too huge, so they had to call for help,” Huyen said.

On June 29, a sailor of QNg 6364 ship named Duong Van Tan contacted captain Duong Thanh Vinh, who is still under arrest in China.

“Vinh said that the 12 people are being held in a closed room but they are still healthy. They didn’t agree to pay the fine. Vinh told me to urgently ask for government agencies’ intervention so sailors could quickly reunite with their families,” Tan recalled.

According to Tan, captain Vinh informed his relatives and the families of other arrested sailors to not pay fines in any event because this would be an admission of guilt and undermine the struggles of the captive fishermen.

Dozens of thousands of fishermen in central Vietnam are very anxious and worried about the Chinese forestry management ship’s arrest of the three fishing boats and 37 fishermen of Vietnam.

At present, Ly Son island district has around 100 fishing boats with over 1,200 fishermen who work on the seas of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa.

Colonel Bui Phu Phu, vice chief of the border guard forces of Quang Ngai province, said the traditional fishing ground of offshore fishing boats of Quang Ngai is the sea of Hoang Sa.

“They (China) have placed a ban, but fishermen still have to go there for catching fish. They can’t ban fishing the year round,” Phu said.

Phu said without measures to protect fishermen, China will narrow the fishing ground of Vietnam.

Colonel Phu said that many fishing boats have been arrested in recent years and most of them have had to pay fines.

“Malaysia and Indonesia also have arrested Vietnamese boats but all cases have been resolved diplomatically. For China, only several cases have been solved diplomatically; in the remaining cases, fishermen had to pay fines to be released. Fisherman have had to take the initiative in paying fines, because there is still no government agency guiding them in the payment of fines,” Phu said.

PV