The Vietnamese community in Frankfurt and its southwestern vicinities staged the second peaceful march on June 22 against China’s illegal placement of its oil rig Haiyang Shiyou – 981 in Vietnam’s continental shelf and exclusive economic zone.

Nearly 1,000 Vietnamese and German citizens made their way to the Chinese Consulate General in the city, where they waved banners “China must immediately withdraw oil rig from Vietnam’s waters”, and “Hoang Sa, Truong Sa belong to Vietnam”.

Thousands of leaflets denouncing China’s illegal acts were handed out to the public during the three-hour rally.

Earlier, the first rally on May 10 attracted hundreds of demonstrators.

At the beginning of May 2014, China illegally dispatched its rig as well as a large fleet of armed vessels, military ships and aircraft to Vietnam’s waters and positioned the rig at 15 degrees 29 minutes 58 seconds north latitude and 111 degrees 12 minutes 06 seconds east longitude, 80 miles deep into Vietnam’s continental shelf and exclusive economic zone.

Despite Vietnam’s protests, China has expanded its scale of operation and moved the rig to 15 degrees 33 minutes 36 seconds north latitude and 111 degrees 34 minutes 11 seconds east longitude, which is 60 nautical miles deep inside Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.

China’s armed vessels have aggressively and consistently fired high-power water cannons at and intentionally rammed against Vietnamese public-service and civil ships, causing damage to many boats and injuring many people aboard.

Chinese ships have continuously encircled, constrained and driven away Vietnamese fishing boats and even injured Vietnamese fishermen, threatening their lives.

On June 22, China deployed up to 137 ships, including five military ships, to protect its oil rig. Some of them constantly followed close behind and obstructed law enforcement operations of Vietnamese fisheries surveillance authorities. Sometimes, they were only 30m from Vietnamese vessels.

The same day, about 50 Chinese fishing ships, backed by coast guard ship coded 46102, formed a line to violently block Vietnamese fishing boats from operating in their traditional fishing grounds, about 35-40 nautical miles from the rig.-VNA