Vadamaraadchi East fishers besiege intruding poachers from South

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 September 2018, 22:42 GMT]
Eezham Tamil fishers from Valveddith-thu'rai (VVT) in Vadamaraadchi to Maruthang-kea'ni in Vadamaraadchi East in the district of Jaffna have mobilised against the Sea-Cucumber poachers who are deployed in the territorial seas and lagoons of Eezham Tamils in the North. The occupying SL Navy and the SL Police are protecting the intruders whom the native fishermen blame as destroying the fishing ecosystem in the North. The SL Fisheries Ministry and its department, coming under the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka, have been collaborating with the big export-oriented business owners in the South who deploy the fishers from South for large-scale Sea Cucumber poaching. On Tuesday, Tamil fishers staged a coordinated action searching for intruders in their coast during the early hours and detained 8 Sinhala poachers along with three boats.

The action was a response to false promises extended recently by the SL Fisheries Minister who promised to withdraw the licenses provided to Sea Cucumber poachers from South.

The SL Minister was giving a false promise to contain the Tamil fishers from protesting against occupying Colombo when the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena was visiting Mayiliddi in Valikaamam on 22 August claiming to reconstruct a fishing harbour there.

Tamil politicians collaborating with the foreign powers operating the regime in Colombo were also silencing the Tamil fishers from Vadamaraadchchi East to stage a protest during the visit of SL President.

Despite the verbal assurances from the SL Fisheries Minister that he would be withdrawing the licenses, the large-scale poaching is taking place as before.

The native fishers also complain that the intruders were behind the arson attacks against their fishing vessels.

The captives were brought to Point Pedro, and the SL Police started to harass the mobilised Tamil fishers to hand over the eight Sinhala fishermen. The Tamil fishers were demanding the fisheries authorities to cancel the licenses of the intruders.

The latest action comes as the local fisheries societies from VVT to Maruthangkea'ni have resolved to monitor and act against the intruding poachers from the South as the SL authorities, not heeding their objections, have been deceiving them.

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