Tamil fishermen to fly black flags on Sri Lanka’s Independence Day

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2004, 10:35 GMT]
Fishermen in Jaffna will fly black flags on their boats, homes and union offices on Sri Lanka’s Independence Day next week, the spokesman for the Federation of Jaffna District Co-operative Fishermen’s Unions told TamilNet, Friday. “February 4th is not Independence Day for Tamils. We want to show the world how we are still being denied our basic freedoms”, he said. Britain gave Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon) independence on 4 February 1948.

The spokesman said all fish markets would be closed and that no fisherman would set out to sea from 12 noon 3 February to 12 noon 4 February as a mark of protest.

There are 105 fishermen’s co-operative unions and 10 federations in Jaffna.