Two released Viet boats rob Cambodian fishermen in Treuy Koh

28 Dec 2010
Kampuchea Thmei
Translated from Khmer by Soch

Two Viet fishing boats that were arrested at sea by the cooperation between the Cambodian fisheries department and the Kampot province authority, are involved in the robbery of equipments and diesel fuel from Cambodian fishermen who were fishing in Kampot sea water.

The incident took place past midnight on 25 December 2010, in Kampot sea water.

Neak Seng, the representative of the Treuy Koh fishing community, revealed to The Kampuchea Thmei reporter that after the 2 Viet fishing boats were released by the Kampot authority at 7PM on 25 December, they returned back during that same night to seek revenge against Cambodian fishermen and they used Samurai swords to threaten and rob equipments and diesel fuel from several Cambodian fishermen in Treuy Koh community.

Neak Seng indicated that the Cambodian fishing boats are small and only had very small crew, so they were scared of the larger Viet fishing boats with larger crew members, that was why they let the Viets rob them without any confrontation.

In the morning of 26 December, the victimized Cambodian fishermen reported their complaint to the Treu Koh commune office to seek for a measure to prevent such incident and to seek justice for them.

Regarding the case of the Viet boats robbing Cambodian boats, Sor Sovin, the director of the Kampot province’s fisheries department, told Kampuchea Thmei in the afternoon of 27 December that the Cambodian fishermen made up this story [sic!] because, immediately after he heard the news, he led his force to seek the culprit boats, but he was not able to find any, furthermore, the Cambodian fishermen claimed that prior to the robbery, the Viet boats raked them, but when he looked at the boats, none of them bear any sign of raking. He claimed that in fact, the Cambodian fishermen are finding excuses to make expert like him spend money on fuel to get out and intervene.