Vietnam to retrieve fishermen released by China

Source: Earth Times

Hanoi - Vietnamese authorities sent a rescue ship to recover nine fishermen who became stranded at sea after they were freed by Chinese authorities, officials said Monday.

The fishermen were at the centre of a diplomatic clash this month after China detained them for allegedly trespassing in waters it disputes with Vietnam.

A Vietnamese rescue ship was scheduled to retrieve the fishermen late Monday from the Paracel Islands, said Phan Van On, head of the Committee for Flood and Storm Control in the fishermen's central home province of Quang Ngai.

The state-run newspaper Tuoi Tre said the rescue ship would dock in the Chinese-held Paracels under an agreement struck by the Vietnamese and Chinese foreign ministries.

In the past year, China has seized or detained hundreds of Vietnamese fishing boats in the disputed waters. Vietnam, China and four other nations dispute the sovereignty of the Spratly and the Paracel Islands and their surrounding waters, which are believed to be rich in undersea mineral resources.

In the latest detentions, China took the fishermen into custody September 11 for fishing near the Paracels and released them October 9. However, the men's boat then went missing after its engine broke down.

Vietnamese authorities and their families were unable to contact them and worried they might still be held captive. Chinese patrol boats then discovered them adrift and took them to the Paracel archipelago.

Colonel Bui Phu Phu, deputy chief of the Quang Ngai provincial coast guard, said the rescue ship had been sent by Vietnam's civilian search and rescue agency, not by its military.