Thailand summons Myanmar envoy, demands release of fishermen

The Thai government summoned the Myanmar ambassador on Monday and demanded the release of four fishermen detained after its navy opened fire on boats near its border, resulting in one fisherman drowning and two others suffering injuries, Thai officials said.

Thailand and Myanmar have several areas of dispute on their long land border as well as on their maritime border in the Andaman Sea, off the southern tip of Myanmar and southwest Thailand.

A Myanmar navy boat opened fire on three Thai fishing boats early Saturday – one fisherman drowned when he jumped overboard and two were injured, Thai navy spokesman Vice Adm. Pasukri Wilairak told reporters. The dead man was not identified.

The Myanmar navy seized one of the boats, the Sor Charoenchai 8, and its crew while the other two managed to flee, he said.

“They fired indiscriminately,” Sripetch Buttat, 44, the skipper of one of the Thai boats, the Mahalap Thanawat 4, told Thai television channels.

Sripetch had a bandaged head, apparently from a bullet that grazed him, while one of his crew was also injured. The man who jumped into the sea and drowned was on the second Thai boat that escaped from the clash, the navy spokesman said.

Thai Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who is also defense minister, said the Myanmar ambassador had been summoned “for discussions” and Thailand was seeking the quick return of the four Thai crew members from the seized boat.

“Right now, we’re trying to coordinate the return of our four Thai nationals. They must return them to us,” Phumtham said, adding that Myanmar could deal with the Myanmar crew members who were on the seized Thai boat.

Phumtham said it was not clear if the Thai boats had intruded into Myanmar waters when the navy opened fire on them.

“At this point, it’s still unclear whether we actually encroached or not, and the vessels in question were fishing boats, not armed vessels,” Phumtham said. “Their response was excessive.”

Officials at the Third Naval Command reported that their Myanmar counterparts said the Thai boats had intruded up to 9 km (5.6 miles) into Myanmar waters. The detained crewmen were being held on Myanmar’s Zadetkyi island.

It was not the first incident in the contested waters in recent years.

In 2020, Myanmar detained a Thai fishing boat carrying 20 Thai and Chinese tourists, saying it had entered Myanmar waters illegally. Myanmar held the tourists for a month before their release following negotiations.

Phumtham said the two countries need to solve this latest dispute through diplomatic channels.

“We want that area to be a place where both sides can make their living, even though each side affirms their own rights,” Phumtham said. “We stick to our demarcation line. Let’s wait for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to negotiate first and not speculate,” he told reporters.

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said details of the incident need to be determined.

“We don’t support violence in any situation, as we’ve consistently stated. … We need to establish the complete facts of what occurred,” she said.