* Tamil Nadu CM urges coercive diplomacy to get Indian fishermen released from Sri Lanka jails
Tue, Aug 6, 2013, 09:29 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Aug 06, Chennai: The Chief Minister of India's Tamil Nadu state J. Jayalalithaa today urged the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take coercive diplomatic action against Sri Lanka to get the Indian fishermen arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy and detained in the island's jails.
In a third letter to Singh within a week, the Tamil Nadu CM said she has been repeatedly writing to the PM about the fishermen from her state languishing in Sri Lanka's jails for invading into the territorial waters of the island and the Indian government's apathy towards the fishermen's plight has emboldened the Sri Lankan Navy to continue " predatory attacks" on Indian fishermen with impunity.
"The ineffective response of the Government of India has emboldened the Sri Lankan Navy to continue such predatory attacks on Indian fishermen with impunity," she wrote.
Drawing the attention to about 70 fishermen remanded in Sri Lankan jails for poaching in the Sri Lankan waters, the Chief Minister sought PM's personal intervention at the highest diplomatic levels in order to secure their immediate release.
Ms. Jayalalithaa said the continuous attacks and abductions are acts of an unfriendly nation and should be countered effectively by coercive diplomacy.
Sri Lanka Navy apprehended 65 fishermen with their nine boats on July 31 in two separate instances and handed over to the authorities in Point Pedro in the north and Trincomalee in the East.
The Navy arrested another 20 Tamil Nadu fishermen and seized their five boats on August 03for poaching in Sri Lankan waters off Mannar and they have been remanded in Thalaimannar.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa recently said that the poaching by Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan water may be an organized act and it has become a major problem for Sri Lanka.
Calling the arrests by the Navy as abductions and kidnappings, the Chief Minister said the frequent abductions, arrests and detention for long periods of time of Tamil Nadu fishermen by the Sri Lankan Government, have created tension and agitation amongst the fishermen community in Tamil Nadu and the fishermen now "nurses a strong grievance" against the central government that it has "forsaken them in a time of crisis and is apathetic to their interests."
Ms. Jayalalithaa asked the Indian government to deliver a strong message through diplomatic channels that India will not tolerate these attacks on fishermen by Sri Lanka.
She suggested the the Indian diplomats in Colombo to take up the matter with the Sri Lankan government and take concrete steps to secure the immediate release of all the 90 fishermen who are now in Sri Lankan jails.
The Tamil Nadu CM asked the Prime Minister Singh to take immediate steps to initiate a diplomatic dialogue with the Government of Sri Lanka to immediately stop the recurrence of such incidents of arrest and harassment of Tamil Nadu fishermen in the Palk bay, which according to the CM, is their traditional fishing area from time immemorial.
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