2009   2008   2007   2006   2005   2004   2003

Northeast fishermen, Sri Lankan Navy and Sea Tigers

NESOHR (North East Secretariat On Human Rights- www.nesohr.org ) has issued two reports on the fate of the Northeast fishing community. The report issued on 17 April 2006, takes up the case of the fishing community in very small region in the Northwest corner of Jaffna. The report list 25 incidents during the period from 27 February to 8 April (post Geneva talks period) in which the Sri Lankan Navy in their gunboats have destroyed fishing equipment belonging the fishermen, stolen their fishing catch, beaten them, and thrown them into the sea and left them there to swim to safety. These woes of the fishermen are repeated throughout Northeast, on a daily basis.

In a much larger report, issued in April 2006, NESOHR describes the fate of the Northeast fishing community since its hay days to its fate today. Northeast fishermen were a successful lot. Prior to the 1970’s, Sinhala fishermen from the south came to Jaffna and worked under the Jaffna fishermen to learn their fishing techniques. Jaffna fishermen went deep sea fishing in homemade boats using 125 HP engines. There were industries like, ice factories, net manufacturing factories and boatyards that supported the growing fishing industry in Northeast. The NESOHR reports charts the deliberate destruction of this flourishing fishing community by GoSL.

Presently fishing in what is referred to as MDBs (Multi Day Boats) is the most profitable endevour. A chart in the NESHOR report (reproduced here) shows that all the MDBs in the island today are owned by fishermen outside the Northeast. The few in the Northeast are all owned by Sinhala fishermen. This informal ban on Tamil fishermen using MDBs is enforced by the Sri Lankan naval gunboats using the terror tactics described in the NESOHR report of 17 April.

All the ice factories in Northeast were destroyed by the Sri Lankan military and to date there has been hardly any rebuilding of these destroyed ice factories. There were several Lighthouses along the coast of Northeast all of which were destroyed by the Sri Lankan military. In Mullaithivu for example, a German NGO, GTZ, came forward to rebuild the destroyed Ligthouse but Sri Lankan Navy disallowed it. Even during CFA, and even along the coast adjacent to LTTE areas, Sri Lankan Navy has continued with its terror tactics on the fishermen.

The NESOHR report describes many more destruction, restriction, and deaths caused by the Sri Lankan Navy to the Tamil speaking fishermen. The reports speaks of the rules imposed by the Sri Lankan Navy on the Northeast fishermen in separate sections titled, Pattern of High Security Zones; Where not to go; When not to go; What not to take; What not to have; the Pass system and More controls. These titles themselves tell the harrowing story of what the Northeast fisherman had to endure under the Sri Lankan Navy

13 May 2006

Print this

Email this