A GROUP of Filipino fishermen have asked the United Nations to stop China harassing them as they cast their nets around a disputed South China Sea shoal, their lawyer said Thursday.
The fishermen allege that China, which has controlled the Scarborough Shoal since a brief 2012 stand-off with the Philippines, is violating their rights to food and livelihood by driving them away, lawyer Harry Roque told AFP.
Signed by 30 fishermen, the petition was sent via email to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and others in the organization in Geneva on Wednesday, he said.
“They are asking for a remedy. (What they want is) no one telling them where and when they can fish,” Roque said.
The current situation was “very, very sad” he said, adding that some of the men are now forced to fish in shallow waters with little success, while many of their wives work abroad to support the family.
The shoal lies 220 kilometers (140 miles) off the main Philippine island of Luzon and 650 kilometers (408 miles) from Hainan island, the nearest major Chinese land mass.
The Philippines claims the shoal is within its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone.
The government has lodged a separate appeal before a United Nations arbitration tribunal to declare China’s sovereignty claim over most of the South China Sea as illegal.
In April, Philippine authorities accused the Chinese coast guard of robbing Filipino fishermen of their catch at gunpoint at Scarborough Shoal and shooing away one group with a water cannon.
In their petition, the Filipino fishermen cited another supposed incident in April last year when Chinese authorities on speedboats and armed with assault rifles allegedly drove them away, shouting: “Go away, go away, three miles, China island,” the 22-page “urgent appeal” read.
The 30 fishermen asked the United Nations to “remind, declare, and direct China and its state agents to cease and desist from violating (their) human rights”•including the right to livelihood, the right to adequate food, and the right life”.
China recently reinforced its claim over almost the entire South China Sea by building artificial islands on disputed reefs.
A recent poll showed eight in 10 Filipinos fear the festering sea dispute with China might lead to “armed conflict” with their powerful Asian neighbor.
Meanwhile, in Washington US President Barack Obama urged Beijing to take “concrete steps” to ease tensions over cyber hacking and its wide-ranging maritime claims, as the United States and China ended three days of candid talks.
American officials have voiced deep concerns about both issues at the annual strategic and economic dialogue aimed at setting guidelines to steer future ties between the world’s two leading economies.
During talks in Washington with top Chinese officials, Obama “raised ongoing US concerns about China’s cyber and maritime behavior, and he urged China to take concrete steps to lower tensions,” the White House said.
Ties have strained over US accusations of cyber espionage and this week’s talks come after revelations of huge breaches of US government computer networks at the Office of Personnel Management.
Washington has also voiced concerns about China’s territorial claims to much of the South and East China Seas, calling on Beijing to resolve the issue peacefully with its neighbors.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who hosted the talks along with Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, said cyber hacking raised questions about security and “frankly harmed American businesses.”
But he said the issue was raised in an “honest discussion without accusations or finger-pointing, about the problem of cyber theft and whether or not it was sanctioned by government.”
The US had “made it crystal clear that this is not acceptable and we need to work through… how we are going to work this out in terms of the bilateral relationship.”
But China’s State Councilor Yang Jiechi called on the US to “respect and accommodate the concerns of China and handle differences and sensitive issues with caution.”
He said he “urged the US to respect facts and work together with China to improve the cyber relations between the two countries.”
It was important for the US “to respect China’a sovereignty and territorial integrity and respect the development path chosen by the Chinese people,” Yang said.
While Washington has repeatedly voiced deep concerns about rights and freedoms in the single-party country, Yang said that “in advancing human rights China’s achievements are there for all to see.”
But even though both sides have stressed they continue to have differences over various issues, they have also been at pains to emphasize that they can cooperate.
Kerry said this, the third round of talks which he has led, had been “one of the most constructive and productive.”
Areas where Beijing and Washington can collaborate include on nuclear non-proliferation efforts with Iran and North Korea, as well as in Afghanistan.
Earlier, the two countries also launched a joint initiative to protect the oceans, and vowed to step up efforts to combat illegal wildlife trafficking.
“We have a real opportunity here to be able to come together… to deal with conserving and protecting the oceans,” Kerry said, adding it could be “a centerpiece in the newly defining relationship with China.”
Yang agreed, saying the oceans were “a shared homeland of mankind, vital for our survival and development.”
The US and China are working together to try to create a marine protected area in Antarctica in the Ross Sea, Kerry said.
The United States has long sought to create a marine reservation in the Ross Sea stretching across 1.34 million square kilometers (517,400 square miles) in an area often referred to as the “Last Ocean” due to its pristine condition.
But to the dismay of conservationists, China blocked the move at a meeting in Australia last year.
On their burgeoning economic ties, the US side stressed the need for transparency and proper regulation for businesses.
The two countries discussed Beijing’s desire for the yuan currency to be given a greater global role such as being part of the IMF’s international basket of reference currencies. Washington has long said the yuan is manipulated and undervalued.
“China has committed to intervene in the foreign exchange market only when necessitated by disorderly market conditions, and to actively consider additional measures to transition to a market-oriented exchange rate,” Lew said.
