Sri Lanka: Fishing to resume in war-and-tsunami-torn east

Sri Lanka eased fishing restrictions in the eastern region captured from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as the rebels accused the military of targeting the industry to prevent it recovering from the 2004 tsunami disaster. The government last week extended fishing areas and the hours that boats can operate in Eastern Province, saying it will boost the industry that is worth $685 million annually. Almost half the 30,000 Sri Lankans killed by the tsunami lived in the Tamil-majority north and northeast of the island nation. The Tamil Tigers say the navy and air force regularly attack Tamil fishing boats. “The government may say ‘go fish’ but the people are too scared to do their jobs,” said K. Thurairatnasingam, representative in the Trincomalee district for the Tamil National Alliance. “The Tamil people are being deprived of one of their main livelihoods.” The TNA is the main Tamil party with 22 seats in Sri Lanka's 225-member Parliament. The fishing industry's contribution to gross domestic product returned last year to levels seen before the tsunami, said Nalani Kumarasinghe, deputy director at the statistics department. “After the liberation of the east, the government is helping the industry to be free of embargoes and restrictions,'' said G. Piyasena, secretary to the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. "The fishermen can now restart their normal lives and earn an income that they had been deprived of.” Setback to LTTE The LTTE suffered the worst defeat in its 25-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland when the army took control of Eastern Province in July. The group, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union and India, say Tamils are discriminated against by the Sinhalese majority. “Farming and fishing, two of the major civilian livelihoods of the people in Kumulamunai in Mullaithivu, are getting destroyed by the incessant shelling from the Sri Lankan military's Manalaru camp,” the LTTE Peace Secretariat said on its website. “Fishermen in Nayaru are also facing exploding shells on the shores from where they go fishing.” Sri Lankan jets dropped bombs into the sea off Mullaithivu, damaging fishing equipment and destroying a potential catch, it said in a statement on April 1. Fishermen are already restricted to working near the shore because of the threat of attacks by the navy in the open sea, according to the secretariat. Bombing raids are preventing them from even making a living by coastal fishing, it said. Selvy Navaruban, the LTTE's spokeswoman on humanitarian issues, wasn't available for comment when contacted by telephone at the rebel headquarters in Kilinochchi in the north. Motorboats A ban on the use of low-powered motorboats was eased from April 27, the Daily News newspaper reported last week, according to an article on the Defense Ministry website. The military targeted bases of the LTTE's Sea Tiger force last year, saying it killed its commander in September. The unit, which had an estimated 4,000 members at one time, used motorboats for suicide attacks and arms smuggling, the government says. The South Asian island nation's economy may expand 7% in 2008, at the lower end of the range estimated in November, the central bank said in its annual report on April 8. “We will get the growth this year, despite a slowdown in credit, with more activity from the Eastern Province,” said Nandalal Weerasinghe, economic research director at the central bank. “The share in absolute terms will be much higher in 2008 from a good agriculture harvest and fishing.'' Development aid The government is seeking $1.8 billion in international aid to help rebuild Eastern Province and bring investment and tourists to the region that has a 426-kilometer (265-mile) coastline of white sands. Elections for local councils were held in March with a pro- government party formed by a breakaway rebel faction winning all eight of the administrations in the eastern Batticaloa district. Eastern Province, which accounts for 15% of Sri Lanka's land area and 7.9% of its population of 20 million people, contributed less than 5% of gross domestic product during its occupation by rebels, according to the central bank. The military has carried out almost daily attacks in the north since the government ended a 2002 cease-fire with the Tamil Tigers in January after accusing the group of using the truce to boost its forces and plan assaults. President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government says it wants to reach a political settlement on the issue of Tamil separatism while eradicating terrorism in the north. It says it won't consider any peace settlement that divides the country. Tamils make up 11.9% of the population and Sinhalese almost 74%, according to a 2001 census. Source: Bloomberg

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