RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Fishing in Troubled Sri Lankan Waters

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

GANDARA, Sri Lanka, Jun 5 1999 (IPS) - Prema Niluka looks out to sea from her home in a fishing village on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka, hoping her fisherman father who has been missing since 1991 would suddenly turn up.

“We miss him dearly,” she sighs. The last time she saw her father, P.H. Albert, was on Apr. 3, 1991, when he left with a seven-member crew on a routine fishing trip off Trincomalee port in the Indian Ocean.

All the family knows is that Tamil rebels attacked the fishing boat and captured the crew. They don’t know where he is and in what condition. Tragedy struck the family again two years later when Prema’s 21-year-old brother and four others went missing.

In February this year, two of her brothers-in-law also vanished. They and the rest of rest of the crew were abducted, the family says, by Tamil separatist guerrillas who often seize boats off the eastern coast of this tiny Indian Ocean island.

The rebels, military authorities say, use the traditional fishing boats to ferry ammunition and supplies brought clandestinely by sea.

Gandara, a village of 50 families, about 180 km south of the country’s capital Colombo, has lost at least 50 men in the past eight years. They either stray into Indian territorial waters and are arrested or are taken prisoners by Tamil rebels, village leaders say.

A spokesman for the United Fishermen’s and Fishworker’s Congress (UFFC) told IPS that at least two or three Sri Lankan fishing boats are detained by Indian authorities every month and their crew were languishing in Indian jails, mostly in the southern state of Kerala.

UFFC General Secretary Saranapala de Silva said they were trying to negotiate the release of more than 50 Sri Lankan fishermen who are in Indian jails for the past year, and also help secure the freedom of an unknown number of Indian fishermen held in Sri Lanka.

He said at least 80 fishermen from the majority Sinhala community – one third are believed to be held by Tamil rebels – have been reported missing since 1997, but fisherfolk say the numbers would be much higher if counted from the early 1990s.

Separatist strife has turned the narrow Palk straits between Sri Lanka and India into a heavily patrolled zone which has become a nightmare for straying fishermen who can expect to be firest at by the navy and arrested.

“We are working together with the Indian Alliance of Arrested Fishermen to get fishermen released on both sides and we have suggested to both governments to formulate a bilateral agreement whereby the release of the fishermen could be a reciprocal arrangement,” De Silva said.

On May 10, dozens of families of missing fishermen protested outside the Indian High Commission in Colombo demanding the release of fishermen held in Indian jails. The protest was organised by the UFFC.

The protesters waved placards and shouted slogans before handing over a letter in which they asked India to quickly release the fishermen.

Last month, Niluka’s sister Maduka wrote to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva seeking its assistance in securing the release of her husband and brother-in- law from rebel custody.

The ICRC, which has in the past helped secure the release of people held in rebel custody, has asked Maduka to produce any evidence the family may have of the two men having been detained by the rebels.

“How on earth does one find evidence of the rebels holding my brothers-in-law? How are we to get someone who has seen my relatives in a rebel camp to testify?” Niluka asks, shaking her head in despair.

In her father’s case, the rebels had attacked several boats at the same time. Some crew members however managed to escape and reported seeing Albert’s boat, Redson, being taken away by the rebels. The Navy and the police in a subsequent search found Albert’s shirt and gave it to the family.

While the fate of the Sri Lankan fishermen held in India lies in the hands of Indian and Sri Lankan authorities, the ICRC office in Sri Lanka is the main hope for fishermen abducted by the rebels.

The Geneva-based humanitarian organisation, ICRC, protects civilians in conflict zones, facilitates the release of prisoners by warring factions or ensures prisoners are treated according to U.N prisoners-of-war conventions.

An ICRC spokesman told IPS they had no immediate information on the missing fishermen. “We get many requests to trace missing persons whose families say are being held by the rebels. The routine practice is to note down the complaints and then forward them to the rebels,” he said.

He said two weeks back the ICRC secured the release of six Muslim fishermen after they disappeared in the eastern seas in March this year. The list of missing fisherfolk remains long.