VietNamNet Bridge – At 14.30 on April 4, the border guard forces of Quang Tri province in coordination with the police of Xavanakhet province of Laos arrested the third suspect in the massacre of five Vietnamese woodmen on March 23.

Five woodmen shot to death at Vietnam-Laos border 

Two suspects arrested for killing five woodmen 

 

The camp where the kidnappers caught five aloes seekers in Laos. 

The third suspect is Ho Van Nguyen, a Van Kieu ethnic minority man living in Ta Pang village, Laos. Nguyen has been transferred to Quang Tri for investigation.

Thus, all three suspects in the murder of five woodmen from Quang Binh province on March 23 were arrested.

Before that, immediately after the arrest, the two suspects of Ho Van Cong and Ho Van Thanh confessed that in mid-March, they met and discussed the plan to enter the forest to kidnap aloe seekers for ransom then kill them to remove traces.

With this plan, they went to Ta Poong village, in Savannakhet, Laos, to entice Ho Van Nguyen, who had an AK rifle to join their plan. Then the three men entered the forest of Quang Tri province to hunt aloe seekers.

On March 23, they approached the camp of a group of eight woodmen from Quang Binh province. At that time, there were seven people in the camp. The rest went out for picking vegetables. The seven men were controlled with the AK rifle and sticks.

Then they tied the hands, knotted ropes around the neck of the seven men and led them to the mountainous region of Ta Pang, Laos to beat them. They asked the woodmen to pay ransom of VND15 million ($700) each to be released.

They released one named Hoang Van Ha to return home to get money to redeem the remaining woodmen.

Answering the question of the investigators that why they killed the woodmen before they get the ransom, they said before going to the forest, they planned to dig a pit, then kill all victims and bury them in that pit. When the other brought ransom back, they would kill this person and bury in that pit, too. However, at 2am on March 24, while they were killing the woodsmen, one named Do Van Hien escaped. After killing five woodmen, they hid in the jungle.

Senior Lieutenant Colonel Le Quang Cong of the Police Agency of Quang Tri Police said that the two suspects coldly declared that they used a stick of about 1m long to beat to the head of the kneeling woodmen to death and pushed them into the pit.

After several days of hiding in a cave in the forest, they were out of food and water. In the afternoon of April 2, one of them left the cave to seek food and was arrested. The second suspect was arrested two hour later and the third was arrested on April 4.

Ben Hai - Duy Quang