Tamil Nadu Fishermen Killings Sri Lanka And India by Usha Ramanathan

Author:Usha Ramanathan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, South India, fishermen, navy, AIADMK, DMK, Karunanidhi, Jayalalithaa, Gujral
Published: 2018-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

8 .

Gujral and the Fishermen

(First Published: 1997-12; Updated 2012-09. This is Ms Usha Ramanathan’s first article on the subject of Tamil Nadu fishermen.)

Usha Ramanathan

The temple town of Rameswaram is the home of many fishing families. These are hard working families who have fished the local seas for generations. Just a few decades ago these fishermen went to the seas in small wooden sailboats; now they have diesel powered boats to go deeper into the seas, bring home a bigger catch and earn a decent living. Foul weather had been their nemesis for centuries - hurricanes, high winds and rough seas. Better weather reports and the powerboats have, to some extent, reduced the risk from the elements of nature. But now, for a decade or so, a dark Satan of death is stalking the fishermen of Rameswaram, in the form of Sri Lankan Navy. Scores of fishermen have been shot and killed by the Sri Lankan Navy during the last few years. Several others have been seriously injured. [See Chapter 1 for the number of fishermen killed.] Both former chief minister Jayalalithaa and the current chief minister Karunanidhi have brought the matter to the attention of the Indian government and it had done nothing to stop the killings of Tamil Nadu fishermen.

What did these fishermen do to become targets for the Sri Lankan navy? According to Sri Lanka, these fishermen had entered Sri Lankan waters. It is quite possible that some or all of these fishermen did cross into Sri Lankan waters by mistake. There are no boundary markers or walls to demarcate the Indian waters from Sri Lankan waters. In spite of navigational aids, fishermen do stray into Sri Lankan waters. There is no international norm or law that allows the Sri Lankan navy to shoot and kill straying Tamil Nadu fishermen. Do you think that the British navy would shoot and kill French fishermen if they were to enter British waters by mistake? Absolutely not. The British navy may warn them and turn them back. Similarly, if British fishermen were to stray into French waters, no French naval ship would shoot at them either. We are not aware of any country shooting and killing fishermen from a friendly neighbor straying into its waters.

We know that a war is going on between the Tamils and Sinhalas in Sri Lanka. This does not give permission for the Sri Lankan navy to shoot at Tamil Nadu fishermen. Neither Britain nor Germany shot at neutral Swiss ships during the Second World War.

This article is not about Sri Lanka's dastardly deeds against Tamil Nadu fishermen but about Indian government's callous disregard for the lives of Tamil Nadu fishermen. As we mentioned earlier, scores of Tamil Nadu fishermen have been shot and killed by the Sri Lankan navy and many more have been severely injured. Indian government had done nothing to protect them. Indian government spends over 250 million Rupees annually for patrolling the Tamil Nadu coast to prevent the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) boats entering Tamil Nadu.

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