The wife of a Vietnamese fisherman who was shot dead by the crew of a Thai police ship that opened fire on six Vietnamese fishing boats over a fortnight ago has submitted her petition to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, suggesting a probe into the case. Nguyen Thi Kim Phuong, the spouse of Ngo Van Sinh, who died at 38 after being shot by Thai coast guard officers off the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang, has also sent her appeal to the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Vietnam Fisheries Association, the Headquarters of Kien Giang Province Border Guard, and the provincial Police Department for the same purpose. The Thai attacks, on September 11, also injured two fishermen, and one of them, Nguyen Hung Cuong, who was shot in his right thighbone, has also submitted his petition to the prime minister and the said agencies. Cuong and Phuong have secured help from Ho Chi Minh City-based Ha Hai & Associates Law Office, which is offering free legal consultancy to the victims of the deadly shootings. In their petitions, they narrated the incident in which the ship Thai Police 528 seized the captain of one of the six Vietnamese boats and then opened fire on them when they were fishing in overlapping waters between Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The Thai force later released that captain to his boat. The Thais maintained that the location of the shootings lies about 40km from their Narathiwat Province, which means it is well within Thailand’s waters. Meanwhile, the Vietnam Fisheries Resources Surveillance Department underlined that the site is in the waters between Vietnam and Malaysia. Therefore, the victims of the shootings want Vietnamese competent agencies to verify the coordinates of the location, where the incident happened, to form an important basis for an investigation to demand justice for them. Cuong has repeatedly told Kien Giang’s competent agencies that when being shot by the Thai force, his ship was well in the Vietnamese waters. Phuong said she is also taking legal action against the attackers, which is not aimed at claiming compensation but at seeking justice for her wife and the other victims of the shootings, as well as for Vietnamese fishermen who are fishing in Vietnamese waters, contributing to the protection of the country’s sovereignty over its seas and islands. No matter how much such compensation is, it could not bring her husband back to life, Phuong said. At a press briefing in Hanoi on September 24, Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Le Hai Binh said the Vietnamese government had strongly demanded that Thailand investigate the assaults, punish those involved, and compensate for the human and property losses of the Vietnamese fishermen. “In any circumstances, Vietnam vehemently condemns the inhuman treatment of Vietnamese fishermen by the threat or use of force,” Binh said. On September 21, Thailand’s Police Major General Apichart Suribunya promised to vigorously investigate the fatal shootings. The Thai official, who is also Commander of Thai Interpol, made the commitment at a meeting with Vietnam’s Charge d’Affaires to Thailand Pham Thanh Nam on the incident.

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