SLN assaults Tamil fishermen in Vadamarachchi Sea

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 January 2003, 17:26 GMT]
Four Tamil fishermen identified as Venkatasalam Arumaichelvan, Gunam Chandrakumar, Joseph Premadas and Sinnathurai Rajendran were severely assaulted by the Sri Lanka navy (SLN) personnel in Vadamarachchi Sea Monday. They were later admitted to Valvettithurai hospital in Jaffna district, human rights sources said.

According to the injured fishermen, naval personnel who had gone in a SLN Dvora gunboat Monday first had intimidated the fishermen and ordered them to dump all their belongings kept in the boat such as fuel, fishing gear and food items into the midsea.

Later the SLN had started assaulting the fishermen with clubs and electric wires, fisheries societies sources said.

The Valvettithurai Fisheries Society has lodged a complaint at the political office of the Sea Tigers of the LTTE in Valvettithurai and the Vadamarachchi Fisheries Co-operative Society regarding the incident, sources said.