Jaffna district Fishermen Societies to boycott meeting with Tamil Nadu counterparts

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 November 2010, 10:49 GMT]
The representatives of Jaffna District Fishermen Societies said Monday that they will boycott the meeting with the representatives of Tamil Nadu Fishermen Societies that is to be chaired by Sri Lanka Minister of Fisheries in Colombo as they had not been officially invited to the above meeting. They further said that they had visited Tamil Nadu in August where they met fishermen society representatives and learnt first hand of their problems but the visiting Tamil Nadu Fishermen Society representatives are not prepared to meet the fishermen in the North. Moreover, Sri Lanka government is trying to create a picture that they are disputes prevailing between the fishermen in the North and Tamil Nadu fishermen with the motive to play down the issue of Tamil Nadu fishermen being attacked by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers on the Northern seas, they said.

Referring to another issue, they pointed out that they had not entertained the request made by Tamil Nadu Fishermen Society representatives when they had requested consent to catch prawns and fish in the Northern seas for a period of 70 days during season, when they met them in August.

They had rejected the request as the fishing methods of the Tamil Nadu fishermen, opposed to the local fishing methods, would completely destroy the fish resources.

The fishermen society representatives in Mannar and other places in North are expected to join in the boycott.