2ND LEAD

Sri Lanka provides harbour, state endorsement, to Chinese fishing

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 June 2013, 15:22 GMT]
In a move delicately endangering local fishing of the peoples of entire southern South Asia, the Rajapaksa Establishment in Colombo has provided facilities of a state-of-the-art fishing harbour near Colombo and State endorsement to Chinese vessels fishing beyond the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Island’s waters. A Company in China has been graced with the rights to ply its fishing vessels with the flag of the genocidal State in Sri Lanka and to use the facilities of the Dikovita fishing harbour. While the Establishment in Colombo would get paltry benefits, shoals of fishes coming from the Antarctica would be exploited in the no-country water itself, before they come to South Asia, affecting the livelihood of not only Tamils, Malayalis and Maldivians but also the Sinhalese, fisheries sources in the island said.

Nowadays, with satellite tracking facilities, shoals of fishes are easily identified in the no-country waters and are exploited by certain countries.

Tuna catch in the Maldives has been heavily affected in the recent decades by such pilfering takes place in the waters beyond the so-called Exclusive Economic Zones. Maldives now imports canned Tuna from outside to meet local consumption requirements.

The exploitation in the no-country waters by certain countries could escalate manifold if they get ground facilities close-by to unload the catch, to process and to export. This is what the genocidal Sinhala State provides to the Chinese.

According to the agreement signed by the Board of Investment of the Rajapaksa Establishment with the Chinese company, 90 per cent of the catch will go to China after storage and processing at the Dikovita fishing harbour. Sri Lanka’s Fisheries Corporation will get only 10 per cent of the catch, that too for a payment of one dollar (around 130 Sri Lankan rupees) per kilogram. The price doesn’t differ much from the wholesale price of local catch.

Four Chinese vessels displaying Sri Lankan flags will be operated in the fishing starting from this month and the vessels, now anchored south of the island, are waiting for Colombo defence ministry’s clearance, The Sunday Times reported this week.

The Chinese company would deploy16 more 150-ft boats, the report further said.

The construction of the Dikovita fishing harbour near Colombo city in the Wattala division of Gampaha district was started in early 2009 and was completed in January 2013. Colombo media reports boast that it is the largest fisheries harbour in the region.

The Chinese vessels using a port at such a location means that the fishing ‘beyond Sri Lanka’s EEZ’ will have a bearing on the fish schools coming to the Maldives, Laccadives, South India especially Kerala, and also the island called Sri Lanka.

The Sinhala State’s preparedness to barter anything, bare anything and even to cut its own nose for the completion of the genocide of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island prompts the Establishments in Washington, New Delhi and Beijing to more and more protect and nurture the unitary and genocidal character of State in the island. ‘Be anti-human if you want protection and prosperity,’ is clearly their paradigm and message, commented a political observer in Colombo watching the games of the swindlers of humanity.

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The Sunday Times:

Chinese vessels to fish under Lankan flag