The captain of a Vietnamese fishing boat that came under attack near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea said he is still reeling from the deadly incident, but asserted that his team will return to fish the contested waters.
Captain Bui Van Cu said his crew has no choice but to continue fishing the sea as it is crew members’ only livelihood and the only means to pay back loans they borrowed to build the ship.
One fisherman on Cu’s vessel was shot dead by a group of eight unidentified assailants last month.
Cu told Vietnamese officials investigating the killing that the two boats used by the plainclothes attackers looked like ones often used by Philippine fishermen.
“But if [they were] Chinese [assailants that] pretended to be from the Philippines … I have no idea,” the captain said.