RT: Captain blamed for ship's sinking

Captain blamed for ship's sinking
20 February, 2009, 00:17

The irresponsible behaviour of the captain of a Chinese cargo vessel caused the death of eight people, according to Russias Foreign Ministry.

The New Star cargo vessel was fleeing a port in the Far East of the country after it had illegally crossed into Russias territorial waters.

The Russian coast guard opened fire while trying to detain the vessel, but it refused to stop. The ship was damaged as a result and later sank in a storm, in the Sea of Japan 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the port of Nakhodka in Russia's Primorye territory. Only eight people of the sixteen crew were saved.

We regret the tragic consequences of this incident. However, we consider the captain of the New Star, who behaved extremely irresponsibly, is fully to blame for the incident, Andrey Nesterenko, a spokesman for the ministry, said.


Read more

Chinese media reported earlier that the Sierra Leone-flagged New Star sank as a result of damage sustained, when the ship was fired upon by Russian border guards after the vessel left Nakhodka and crossed the Russian border without prior permission from the authorities.

We stress that the New Star violated Russias state border and for several hours the captain rudely ignored signals from the coast guard vessels and failed to comply with the lawful requests of the coast guard authorities, Nesterenko said.

A full investigation is currently underway, he added.

The border guards fired warning shots, but when the vessel still refused to stop, more direct shots were fired.

According to video footage shown on the Internet in Vladivostok, Russian border guards fired a total of 515 shots at the vessels bow. When this had no effect, they requested permission to open fire on the stern.

The ship issued a distress signal when the vessel started to take on water during the storm on Sunday, and the sixteen Indonesian and Chinese crew members, got into two lifeboats. Half of them were picked up by a Russian vessel, but an attempt to save the other eight sailors failed.

A small boat was discovered on Tuesday in the area where the ship sunk, but there was no one on board. The search operation launched by Russia continued on Thursday.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Russia
• Sierra
• Leone
• cargo
• ship
• Chinese
• crew

[jf1gwj]

According to the international maritime law, it is totallt legal, since the Russian Coast Guard have the mandate to enforce laws on the high sea. The Chinese left the port w/o permission, and refuse to stop the engine. So, it was right for the Russian captain to use any means to stop the Chinese ship.

[L0C85]

Enforce the law by sinking the ship? That's pretty harsh since theirs no proof they were smugglers. Where's the damn proof. If anything they should have boarded the ship. Not sink it.

[hlimkb]

not good to sink a ship of a good ally and business partner

[angloengland]

Theres no proof because they fled the port when the ship was impounded LOL As for boarding the ship - thats what they would have done if it stopped - but it didnt so they couldn't board a moving vessel and put their own at risk. What should they have done - let potential smugglers escape and ignore Russian laws?

[angloengland]

Well done for your sensible comment. This can't be allowed to come between Chinese and Russian co-operation - these people were suspected smugglers and their actions confirm this was probably the case. Well done to Russia for inforcing the rule of law.

[cinosnowy]

This is bloody outrageous! Absolutely outrageous. The news correspondent here takes Russia's position that the Chinese vessel was "fleeing" when in fact it was sailing normally in international waters, clearly out of Russia's jurisdiction, after having legally dumped unwanted cargo of rice. The Russian Coast Guard fired at the Chinese vessel, sinking it and causing its crew to abandon ship in emergency rafts.

[AntiDefm]

@bunk: What you are seeing in the above video clip at time mark 00:15 is called the WARNING SHOT in case you thought that is the firework you have for the Chinese New Year.