BANGKOK – Myanmar is to release four Thai fishermen nearly a week after a Myanmar navy boat opened fire on them and detained them for what Myanmar said was an intrusion into its waters in the Andaman Sea, Thai officials said on Friday.
One fisherman drowned after he jumped into the sea and two were injured when a Myanmar boat opened fire in waters near the neighbors’ border on Nov. 30.
“The Myanmar side has released all four Thai nationals who were then taken to the immigration checkpoint at Kawthoung-Ranong for processing,” Thai foreign ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura said late on Thursday.
The four fishermen were released in the southern Myanmar town of Kawthoung and were due to cross over a border inlet there to Thailand’s Ranong town, the Thai ministry said.
Thai officials said consular procedures were being carried out before the four would be returned. Radio Free Asia was not able to contact officials in Kawthoung or a spokesman for Myanmar’s ruling military.
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, and disagreements occasionally flare up.
Thailand summoned the Myanmar ambassador on Monday to protest against what it said was an excessive use of force against the fishermen and to demand the release of the four Thais. Myanmar nationals working on the Thai boat were also detained but their fate was not known.
The detained fishermen were on one of three Thai boats that the Myanmar navy fired at in the early hours of Nov. 30. The other two boats escaped.
The skipper of one of the boats that escaped said the Myanmar navy had fired at them “indiscriminately.”
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Earlier, officials at the Third Naval Command reported that their Myanmar counterparts said the Thai boats had intruded up to 9 kilometers (5.7 miles) into Myanmar waters. Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said the facts had to be determined.
A spokesman for the Myanmar military, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, defended the navy’s action saying Myanmar forces were wary of insurgent infiltration.
It was not immediately clear when Myanmar would also release the boat it seized, the Sor Charoenchai 8.
It was not the first incident in the contested area 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.
Edited by Taejun Kang.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.