SLN misappropriates outboard motors of Vanni IDPs in Vadamaraadchi

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 14:54 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel in Vadamaraadchi are forcibly confiscating the boats with outboard motors in which civilians flee the war in Vanni to Vadamaraadchi from areas like Mullaiththeevu, fisheries society sources in Vadamaraadchi complained. Some SLN officials who had taken away the outboard motors in their vehicles had tried to sell them in the black market, the sources alleged.

The civilians arrested by the SLN when they arrive in Vadmaraadchi are taken away to be held in the Sri Lanka Amy (SLA) detention camps in the peninsula while their boats fitted with outboard motors are left on the shore.

SLN confiscates these boats but it is not known as to what happens after that to the boats and the accessories.

Meanwhile, some SLN officials are alleged for misappropriation of the outboard motors which they take away in their vehicles to be sold in the black market, fisheries society sources said.

These boats should be legally handed over to the fisheries societies for their safe keep and maintenance until their owners return to normal life when they will need the boats and the outboard motors, their only means of livelihood, the fisheries societies said.

Fisheries societies in Vadmaraadchi, which are prepared to safeguard the said boats and the outboard motors, have sought the help of Point Pedro Court to help them in this matter.