Source: Stuff, New Zealand
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq6wVaB8Wnc&feature=youtu.be [FOOTAGE YET TO BE VERIFIED]
“A video that appears to show fishermen being murdered at sea has been posted on YouTube.
The 10 minute 26 second video went up earlier today.
The video’s contents have not been verified but a Fiji Police source, who requested anonymity after alerting Fairfax to the video, said their forensic unit in Suva would study it. He had no other information saying that a member of the public had complained to them.
YouTube has been contacted to alert it to the video and seek further background and comment.
The video appears to be filmed from the deck of a fishing boat travelling with three others. A nearby boat has a clearly identifiable number along its hull.
The video shows them coming across the up-turned wreckage of a small boat with men in the water.
The tuna boat moves in close to the first man who is looking up at the camera.
Shots are then heard and several can be seen missing the man in the water until he appears to be hit and stops moving.
The video shows the boat moving closer into the wreckage where another man tries to swim away before he too appears to be shot and killed.
A third man struggling to swim then clings to the wreckage. He is shot at multiple times and appears to be hit a couple of times before he lets go.
At one stage the video shows a body of a man wearing a red and white striped shirt.
At the end of the video the man with the camera then films other crewmen. A Burmese journalist said the men appeared to speaking a mixture of Burmese and Thai.
A large tuna fleet operates out of Suva, Fiji.
The vessels are often crewed by Indonesians, Vietnamese, Burmese and Cambodians on little more than slave wages.
There are no active reports of missing fishermen in Fiji but every other month a search is conducted for missing fishermen, many of whom are never found”.
Reporter: Michael Field, Stuff, NZ
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Stuff is New Zealand’s award winning* news and information website, bringing together the vast resources of Fairfax New Zealand Ltd several hundred journalists and photographers around the country to provide a single online ‘publication’.