SLN assaults fishermen in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 January 2002, 17:51 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Navy assaulted and tortured four fishermen in the sea off Pulmoddai, about 50 kilometres north of Trincomalee Sunday morning Mr. R. Sampanthan, the Tamil National Alliance MP for the district, told TamilNet. He said that he has brought the matter to the notice of the local SLN commander. Meanwhile, in Jaffna the Sri Lanka army has barred five fishermen in a coastal settlement in Thumpalai, near Pt. Pedro, from fishing as punishment for setting out to sea one hour before the stipulated time.

The fishermen were barred from setting out to sea to ply their trade from Friday, 25 January. The SLA allows fishermen in these parts to be at sea from 5 to 10 in the morning. A few miles further north on the coast of Jaffna's Vadamaradchi division the SLA has totally banned fishing is from Thikkam to Thondmanar.

The restrictions and the ban have to been revised or removed despite repeated appeals by the fishermen of Jaffna.

The TNA MP for Trincomalee said that the Pulmoddai fishermen were fishing in two boats when the near the coast when the Navy attacked them, Mr. Sampathan said. The Navy personnel destroyed the fishing gear in both boats and they confiscated the day's catch from the boats, he said.

Mr. Balachandran, 21, and Subramanian, 55, were in one boat and in the other were Mr. Varatharaja, 27 and Jeyachandran, 17, when the Navy assaulted and tortured them.