Navy assaults fishermen at sea

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 May 2002, 10:13 GMT]
Sri Lankan gunboats surrounded Tamil fishing boats far from shore and forced the occupants to jump into the sea in continuing harrasment by the Navy, press reports said Monday. Thirty five fishermen were assaulted and ordered to jump overboard 15km from the Mullaitivu shore on May 9, the Jaffna based Tamil daily Uthayan reported.

Seven fishing trawlers were sailing together when they were surrounded by the Sri Lanka Navy gunboats at 10.30 am, the paper said. Among the victims were elderly fishermen who struggled in the deep sea until other fishing boats came to their rescue after the Navy left the area.

The fishermen, mostly from Trincomalees' Thirukkadalur and 10th Kurichchi, reached their homes the next day. A complaint has been lodged with the Trincomalee office of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, said the Uthayan.