Vietnamese Fishermen Claim They
Were Tortured by Taiwanese Boat Captains

Six Vietnamese fishermen who arrived in Costa Rica Feb. 1 on a fleet of nine Taiwanese boats lodged accusations against the boat captains with Costa Rican authorities claiming they tortured them.

The Vietnamese said the captains assaulted them with metal objects, hit them with a hammer and made them kneel for 12 hours with a gun trained on them, the daily La Nación reported yesterday.

My Hoang, 22, said one of his fingers was smashed with a hammer and doctors in the Puntarenas hospital, on the central Pacific coast where the fleet arrived, had to amputate it.

When they touched Costa Rica soil, the Vietnamese fled and took refuge in the house of a man who lives in Puntarenas. The man immediately contacted the Special Immigration Police and they escorted the foreigners to San José.

The fishermen, who were “terrorized,” did not request asylum, rather, that they be deported to their country because, they say, they are sought after here by two Indonesian thugs.

“It doesn't look like a trick to stay here. This is an unusual case. They don't want to be out on the street when the logical thing would be for them to ask us to let them go,” Immigration director Marco Badilla said.

The Taiwanese boats are still in Costa Rica and Immigration is in contact with the Ministry of Public Security initiating investigations into the case.

EFE

Scientists Highlight Cocos
Island as Conservation Role Model

Golfito (EFE) – In a stop on their expedition from the Pacific to the Mediterranean, scientists with the U.S. conservation association Oceana praised the model of conservation Costa Rica has applied to Cocos Island, in the Pacific over 500 Kilometers southwest of the mainland.

Members of the expedition said they were “fascinated” with the way in which the Costa Rican government and the conservation association MarViva have banded together to protect the marine life of the island.

The island is an uninhabited national park, home to 60 endemic species and was declared one of the Natural Heritages of Humanity by UNESCO in 1997.

For 12.5 years, MarViva and the Costa Rican government have kept watch over the island and a 22.2 Km ring of sea around it, safeguarding it from illegal fishers that harm the water's native sharks and dolphins.

“Illegal fishing has been wiped out, and the number of species has increased,” the European director of Oceana from Spain, Xavier Pastor, told EFE.

The oceanographer added that the conservation model between the state and the private association is an example that “we have to take to the whole world.

”It's difficult because you have to adapt to different cultures. In some countries, giving conservation associations so much power doesn't sit well with governments, and sometimes those organizations can be very arrogant.”

Spanish oceanographer Juan Carlos Camblor was “incredulous,” about the natural beauty of the island and the marine biodiversity there, and told EFE “it's a unique place on the planet for SCUBA diving.”

Though they found the remains of fishing nets within the protected area, Camblor assured it was an isolated situation and that throughout their stay on the island the crew had their “mouths wide open,” soaking in the island's natural beauty.

The crew set out Jan. 17 from Los Angeles, California, on an expedition that will take them 10,000 miles in the catamaran “Oceana Ranger,” one of the biggest such ships in the world, measuring 24 meters and bearing a crew of 8-10, including the captain, sailors, divers and marine biologists.

Friday the crew steered toward Coiba Island in Panama, then they will cross the canal and make stops in the Caribbean and Florida before setting sail for the Mediterranean.

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