VietNamNet Bridge – After six days of detention, fourteen Vietnamese fishermen who were held illegally by Chinese authorities while fishing in Vietnam’s territorial waters have returned to Vietnam.

The fishermen, of Quang Ngai Province, were arrested while operating on their two fishing boats in an area near the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands at 10 am on May 16, 2012.

After being set free by Chinese authorities on May 21, they returned to the province’s Sa Ky Port at about 2 am yesterday morning.

All these fishermen are from Binh Chau Commune, Binh Son District.

Vo Minh Quan, 42, the captain of QNg 50003TS boat, said the fishermen went to sea on May 2. Fourteen days later, at 9 am on May 16, a Chinese ship coded 306 suddenly appeared and seized the boat and the crew.

The foreign ship later captured the QNg 55003TS boat piloted by captain Tran The Anh and then escorted the two boats with all their crewmembers to Phu Lam island for detention.

The Chinese authorities confiscated all fishing tools, maritime equipment, 2,000 liters of oil, five diving cylinders, and a large amount of sea products.

Total value of the seized items of both fishing boats is estimated at VND900 million (US$43,200). Quan said.

At 12 am on May 21, the Chinese captors released all fishermen and the QNg 50003TS but kept the other boat in detention.
The arrest was made on the very day when China’s ban on fishing in many areas in the East Sea, including several areas belonging to Vietnam, took effect.

The ban, issued by the Chinese Department of Fisheries on January 12, takes effect from May 16 to August 1, 2012.

On January 20, a spokesperson for the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Luong Thanh Nghi, asserted that the fact that China unilaterally banned fishing activities in the East Sea was an act in violation of Vietnamese sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) islands, as well its sovereignty rights and jurisdictional rights over exclusive economic zones and the continental shelf.

With such an act, China has violated the Declaration of Conducts (DOC) and complicated the situation in the East Sea, Nghi said.
On May 15 Nghi re-affirmed that “Vietnam opposes China’s unilateral decision and considers this as invalid.”

The Vietnam Fisheries Association has also said recently the ban is both groundless and wrong, and violates Vietnam’s sovereignty over its territorial waters.

“The association objects to such an irrational ban,” said Tran Cao Muu, deputy chairman and general secretary of the association.

VietNamNet/Tuoi Tre