Pirates Attack Viet Refugee Boat; 130 Die

Pirates attacked and set fire to a wooden boat carrying Vietnamese refugees, massacring about 130 people in a rampage of rape, gunfire and clubbings, refugee officials said Friday.

They said the attack took place in the South China Sea off the Malaysian coast on April 16, according to the only known survivor, who was picked up by another refugee boat after he spent 29 hours adrift at sea.

“It is one of the worst incidents of piracy we have heard of,” said Jean Marie Fakhouri, an official of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Kuala Lumpur.

Such attacks on refugees fleeing Vietnam have increased in number and viciousness recently. Two attacks in March left more than 100 people missing and presumed dead.

Western officials say most pirates are Thais who roam the South China Sea, the Gulf of Thailand and waters off Indonesia.

7 Pirates Storm Boat

In the April 16 incident, seven pirates armed with shotguns and hammers stormed the refugees’ boat, which left Vietnam on April 14 with more than 130 people, including 20 children, aboard, said a statement issued by the U.N. agency.

The pirates shot and killed the boat’s two pilots and its mechanic and raped most of the 15 to 20 women and girls aboard, the statement said.

They then set the boat afire. “In the ensuing panic, many refugees grabbed buoys and jerrycans and floats and plunged into the sea,” the statement said.

The pirates “used sticks to prevent refugees from clinging on floating objects. Those who resisted were shot at.”

The 22-year-old man who survived the attack was identified as Pham Ngoc Minh Hung. The statement said he swam away from the boat during the attack. Supporting himself on two wooden planks, he drifted until he was rescued on April 17 by another refugee boat, the statement said.