Mr. Doan Duc Dung (born in 1967, residing in An Khe town, Gia Lai province) recounted in detail his two encounters with and near-death experiences when he was confronted and held hostage by a dangerous group of people in Ea Ktur commune, Cu Kuin district, Dak Lak province, in the early morning of June 11th.
At approximately 1:15 AM on June 11th, Mr. Dung was driving a 15-ton truck loaded with coffee, with a co-driver on board, to the Ea Ktur commune. When Mr. Dung's truck reached the edge of the commune, it encountered a group of people.
Mr. Dung recounted: "They went all the way down the main road, and I couldn't swerve anywhere. I braked and thought they were just soldiers or militiamen doing some kind of training, and they were shining flashlights on my car's windshield."
But when I shone my car's headlights, I saw nothing but guns and knives. There was a gun for every person. They blocked the car, about thirty-something people. I knew something was wrong, thinking it was a robbery, so I took my wallet, hid it under the driver's seat, and took nearly 3 million dong.
As I approached, someone ran up, raised a gun, and demanded that I turn off the lights. The person spoke in Vietnamese, demanding I get out of the car, but I didn't dare open the door. I locked the car and told the assistant driver to lock the other door as well.”
According to Mr. Dung, they fired many shots, with some aiming at the driver, but luckily he ducked down and hid under the steering wheel, thus escaping death. The assistant driver also ducked down.
"I was terrified. The assailant was standing 1 meter away from me, shooting upwards, intending to kill the driver. They were all masked, their heads covered except for their eyes, and they were all wearing camouflage clothing."
At that moment, I could have just started the engine and driven away, but there were 2 or 3 people standing in front of the car, so I didn't dare start it.
"After they finished shooting, they thought I was dead and left. About 3 minutes later, I looked in the rearview mirror and didn't see them anymore. Immediately, I started the engine, turned on the headlights, and drove away. It all took about 15 minutes," Mr. Dung recounted his lucky escape from death.
After driving about 20 meters, Mr. Dung encountered a parked four-seater car on the road with no one inside, forcing him to maneuver around it to continue his journey. Along the way, Mr. Dung and the passenger saw the commune's People's Committee building engulfed in flames, but having just narrowly escaped death, he didn't dare stop.
After driving a little further, Mr. Dung and his assistant saw a pickup truck with someone slumped inside. The assistant told Mr. Dung that the person had probably been shot dead. Mr. Dung became even more frightened and continued driving.
However, before they could recover from the shock, Mr. Dung and his assistant faced further danger when they encountered a group of three men in camouflage clothing, using two farm vehicles to block the main road. With no escape route, the assailants pointed guns and demanded that the two men get out of the vehicle.
As soon as he got out of the car, the assistant driver was struck on the back of the neck with the butt of a gun by one of the assailants, causing him to collapse. The assailant ordered the assistant driver to kneel, covering his head with both hands… They instructed Mr. Dung to block traffic, preventing other vehicles from passing. Then the assailant pulled out a knife and punctured the tires.
“They ordered me to stand closer, and I knew I was going to be stabbed or shot. At that moment, three cars drove in, about 300-400 meters away, and they shouted, ‘Come out and kill them all!’ Immediately, about a dozen people poured out from the coffee plantation and opened fire. The tourist cars turned around and sped away,” Mr. Dung recounted.
Taking advantage of the moment when the gunmen were firing at the cars, Mr. Dung ran into a coffee plantation by the roadside and hid. The assistant driver also escaped.
Afterward, the perpetrators returned to the front of Mr. Dung's vehicle, threw two homemade gasoline bombs into the cabin causing an explosion, and then left.
Mr. Dung ran out of the coffee plantation, calling out to the neighbors along the road to ask them to turn on the water to put out the fire. But at that moment, the flames flared up, the dangerous individuals turned around, noticed what was happening, and returned. Mr. Dung threw down the water hose again and once more ran back into the coffee plantation to hide.
Only after the suspects had left did Mr. Dung dare to put out the fire, but the entire cabin and one-third of the rear of the vehicle were burned, damaging the goods. A short while later, a group of riot police arrived and questioned Mr. Dung about the direction the suspects had gone.
"I'm so lucky to still be alive, because at that moment I thought I was going to die," Mr. Dung recounted, still terrified by the guns and knives of those dangerous men.
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