JAKARTA: Indonesia's navy said Monday that one of its patrol vessels was rammed by two Vietnamese coast guard ships after intercepting a boat it says was fishing illegally in its waters.
Indonesia detained 12 Vietnamese fishermen from the boat, which sank in Saturday's clash, and they are being held at a naval base “for further legal proceedings,” said Rear Adm. Yudo Margono, the commander of Indonesia's Western Fleet. Two others were rescued by Vietnam's coast guard.
The Vietnamese fishing vessel was intercepted in waters off Indonesia's Natuna island chain, which is in the southernmost reaches of the South China Sea, Margono said in a statement Monday. Indonesia calls the waters the North Natuna Sea.
“The location of the arrest was actually in Indonesian waters,” Margono said. “But the Vietnamese also claimed that the area was Vietnamese waters.”
Video purportedly shot from the Indonesian vessel that has been shared widely on social media shows a Vietnamese patrol boat colliding with it as armed Indonesian seamen shout out insults such as “dog”, “pig” and “you die”.
Indonesia has sunk hundreds of illegal fishing vessels from Vietnam, the Philippines, China and other nations since 2014 as part of efforts to exert greater control over its vast maritime territory.
