Pirates raped, killed boat people

Press, 27 December 1985, Page 6

Pirates raped, killed boat people

NZPA-AP Geneva Fifty Vietnamese boat people died in an attack last week by pirates who tossed the men into the South China Sea and raped the women, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said yesterday. A spokesman, Leon Davico, said that the 30 survivors, who included only two men, had given this account to the U.N.H.C.R.’s representative in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

After sailing for four days they were stopped by ' a fishing boat with an apparently friendly crew who offered to help them get to Malaysia. Two men, one woman, and three children were invited to go aboard the fishing boat, which then took the Vietnamese craft in tow. Five hours later a second fishing boat arrived, from which about 20 pirates, armed with knives and iron bars, boarded the Vietnamese boat and began

searching the people for gold and valuables. All men above the age of 17 were thrown into the water even the two who had been invited aboard the “friendly” ship. Most of them drowned because they could not swim. The women were raped. After the pirates left, a man who had managed to keep floating by holding bn to a jerry-can joined'the 28 women and children aboard and helped them to put up a sail again.