Licence issues cause ripples among Negombo – Kalpitiya fishermen

Licence issues cause ripples among Negombo – Kalpitiya fishermen

 Jan 26, 2016  Tharushan Fernando  Local, News Ticker  0

A strike action was launched on Monday for the duration of one week, in several areas, by fisherman against a decision made by the department to issue licences once again.

This decision to launch a strike was reached following intervention by heads of  fisheries organisations from Kalpitiya to Negombo

The heads of fisheries organisations noted that although the authorities had banned certain fishing gear, three weeks later, licences were provided for the use of such fishing gear.

Acting Chairman of Chilaw Fisheries District, Roshan Fernando noted that the Minster of Fisheries had previously made a statement that a certain fishing gear will be banned. Two weeks later a gazette notification was sent to the district office stating that licences would be provided for the use of the previously banned gear.

“Are they trying to hand over these jobs to the businessman and make them rich?” he questioned and added that the minster must work to uplift the lives of all  fisherman

Chairman of Sinnapaduwa Fisheries Co-operative Society, Jensen Fernando noted that there are leaders across the country who should discuss this matter with heads of the fishing organisation and then reach a decision. He added that they should not make any decision that would harm the fisheries industry.

He added that due to this situation, small-scale fishermen are facing much hardship. He stated that thus a strike action aimed at the government will be called for a week, and if a solution is not given in a week, the fishermen will step down

Give our land back

Sri Lankan Milit(OU)arism!!!

What is the role of military in tourism business apart from security? This is an interesting question anyone can ask! But you have a very unusual answer lying here in Sri Lanka. In this strange place (it’s quite ironic that Sri Lankan tourism advertise it as ‘The wonder of Asia’!) military is running hotel business, grabbing land for investors and powerful politicians, running canteens in the name of Army Welfare Society, they even destroyed the homes of local people in the name of war and used the same building materials for constructing their luxury hotels (what a reusing and recycling strategy!) using prisoners for hotel construction, creating racist war museums as tourist attraction and so on. The word human right is seems like an extravaganza here. There many hotels are owned by Army, Air force and the Navy. They own golf courses, cricket stadiums; they train their own people to run tourism business. This is one of the best ways for them to keep their power.

It is also interesting to see how military keep local communities especially in the fisher folk away from the coast. Many people ran away in 1990 during the peak of the war and ended up to the camps and still living there without land or proper rehabilitation. Since then, the armed forces have claimed vast stretches of land in the north of Sri Lanka for themselves. During the war, many Tamils fled the north and settled abroad or in other regions of the island. Since the end of the war, many of them have wanted to return and reclaim their land. However, the army has other plans: the appropriated estates and land have become Military Camps, "High Security Zones" (HSZ) or "Special Economic Zones" (SEZ).The armed forces have laid claim to approximately 6,000 acres of land that they want to permanently convert into HSZ in Jaffna peninsula alone. The authorities used war as an excuse to displace communities without any compensation. Sri Lanka already announced 45 tourism zones and 4 Special Tourism Zones.

Now war is over but the high security zones are still remaining and budgetary allocation for armed forces increasing year by year (In 2009, the final year of the war, EUR 1.1 billion was reserved for military expenditure, while in 2015, the amount reserved is EUR 1.9 billion). Armed forces are still keeping major portion of the land and not releasing to people who once owned the land. In many places they are announcing their own projects (Military hotels, golf courses etc.) Special Tourism Zones and Tourism Zones.

In spite of this poor human rights record, the Sri Lankan government promotes a country that has returned to normality. This image of a peaceful and prosperous holiday destination is marketed globally. However, our experience in the ground very clearly shows the sobering reality behind the glossy brochures.

People lost their rights day by day

Pasikudah , a hotelier advertised in his web site as a relaxing paradise for high dollar tourists is no more a relaxing beach for fisher folks. Their access to the beach is completely denied and they are not allowed to park their boats, nets and other fishing equipments in the beach and thus massively encroaching the living of fisher folk. They are now forced to walk up to 5 kilometer to reach the only available mooring. Over 300 fishermen have been forced to share an increasingly small section of the 5km-long, 14 hectare section of beach. They are now restricted to a 300m-long section that is overcrowded with fishermen. A fishery centre had to make way for hotels and big resorts. Hence, the fishermen not only lost the storage facilities for their nets and equipment, but also for the refrigeration of their catch, thus forcing them to sell it at lower prices. Land grabbing is very common here. Powerful politicians already acquired land forcefully (especially during Mahinda Rajapakse regime) and already constructed huge hotels and resorts.

In the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, the government established buffer zones in the coastal areas. The people, who had lived on this land, sometimes for generations, were forced to leave these buffer zones because of their safety and environment conservation. While the original coastal residents were forced to relocate, the construction of hotels and tourist resorts in the buffer zones was approved and none of the safety and environment conservation applied for them.

Passikudah is a beautiful beach located in Batticaloa district. Prior to 1983, Passikudah had been a popular tourist attraction. At that time, the region offered three hotels with a total of 171 rooms. After the outbreak of war in 1983, tourism completely collapsed in the region. After the civil war of 2009, this place was again promoted and attracted huge investment. According to various reports more than 1000 hotel rooms has been already developed and many of them are under construction. Many of these constructions are destroying the fragile environment of the region. Destruction of mangroves and sand dunes has also very visible. Some reports say that authorities have conducted an EIA but our investigation shows that the local population had never been informed of the results.

Some local fisher folk pointed out that tourism in the past (prior to 1983) benefited local population more due to the involvement of small and medium businesses. But the current invasion of big players with huge investments limiting and reduced the scope of local benefits from tourism.

In recent past too much media reports and hype on Sri Lankan tourism. Many of these reports are praising the tourism development in Sri Lanka. But our experience from the ground tells us that a one sided and unsustainable development is taking place here with violations of serious human and other rights .

More on Military tourism tomorrow....

people are not happy for the resettlement process of Srilanka

Resettlement process in Vallikamam North -Jaffna

Realised land for the people from March 2015
J.235- Kankasanthurai south- 135.73 Acres
J.236- Vimamkamam North- 55.6 Acres
J.238- Kattuvan- 09 Acres
J.240-Thnmailai-26.1 Acres
J-241-Varuthalaivilan-132.78 Acres
J-244-Vayavilan-80.63 - Acres
J-246- Mailddy north-8.3-Acres
J-250-Thaiyitty South-196.6 Acres
J-252-Palaly south- 187.17
Acres
J-253-Palaly East- 159.5Acres
J-254-Palaly North-64.74 Acres
Total families who resettled in these areas-1443

Still under the miltory control
J.226-Nagulvssvaran, J-233- KKS West, J-234 KKS centre,J-242-Kurumbacity,J-243-Kurumbucity East, J.-245-Vayavilan west,J 247-Thaiyitty East,J-249-Thaiyitty North,J248 Mailaddy north beach site,J 246 Mailaddy ,J251 Mailaddy north,J255 Palali North east
J256 Pallai West
(Thinakarm new paper 23 Janu 2016

)

Release Saeed Baloch Campaign

Saeed the General Secretary of Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum Has been abducted by the Pakistan Rangers,
Protest. Was conducted in.front of the Pakistan High commission of Srilanka ,NAFSO .leaders other civil society member joint this protest.Then they Hand over the petition to the Ambassador.

Retired Sri Lankan bishop risked life for Tamils, say activists

Prelate survived assassination attempts while championing the rights of the underprivileged

Sri Lankan rights activists are hailing the work of Bishop Rayappu Joseph who, due to ill health, resigned on Jan. 14 from the pastoral care of the majority Catholic Tamil Diocese of Mannar.

Jehan Perera, executive director of the National Peace Council, said Bishop Joseph played a major role in helping Tamil civilians during Sri Lanka's civil war.

"He organized people who were terrified to stand up for their democratic rights to vote at elections," Perera told ucanews.com.

From 1999 to 2001, before the Norwegian government acted as the peace facilitator, Bishop Joseph and his Sinhalese counterpart, then-Bishop Malcolm Ranjith of Ratnapura, were intermediaries between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Perera said.

"Bishop Joseph gave credible, courageous and spiritual leadership to the Catholic Church in the midst of life-threatening conditions," he said.

Read more (http://www.ucanews.com/…/retired-sri-lankan-bishop-ri…/75017)

New Path for the Reconciliation

NAFSO has been conducting many programs in North and East for protect in and get back their rights but we had a language barrier to communicate with them.So NAFSO secretariat started Tamil class from January 2016 

නව ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා ප‍්‍රතිසංස්කරණ සඳහා වන මහජන අදහස් විමසීම -

නව ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා ප‍්‍රතිසංස්කරණ සඳහා වන මහජන අදහස් විමසීම - 1

සමස්ත රටම ඒකරාශි කරගනිමින් රටටත් ,රටේ ජනතාවටත් සුභ සිද්ධවන නව ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් සැකසිය යුතුය යන ශ‍්‍රී ලංකා අගමැතිවරයාගේ අදහස ක‍්‍රියාත්මක කරමින්, අද දින (18) කොළඹ දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කයේ මහජන අදහස් විමසීම, කොළඹ 02, ස්ටේපල් විදියේ ,  සවිසුම්පායේ පිහිටි ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේදි පෙරවරු 9.30 ට ආරම්භ විය. 

අදහස් යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට ජනතාවට ලබාදී ඇති අවකාශය ප‍්‍රයෝජනයට ගනිමින් මීගමුව ජාතික ධීවර සහයෝගිතාවය, සිය හවුල්කාර සංවිධාන, පුරවැසි කමිටු , ධීවර කමිටු සහ දිස්ත‍්‍රික් කමිටු නියෝජිතයින් නව ආණ්ඩුක‍්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා ප‍්‍රතිසංස්කරණ සඳහා යෝජනා ඉදිරිපත් කරවීමට උනන්දු කරවා තිිබිණි.
  
ඒ අනුව, යාපනය ත‍්‍රිකුණාමලය මන්නාරම අම්පාර ගාල්ල කළුතර පුත්තලම කුරුණෑගල පොලොන්නරුව සහ කොළඹ යන දිස්ත‍්‍රික්කවල ධිවර සහයෝගීතාවය හා සම්බන්ධ සාමාජිකයින් විසින් සිය ක්‍ෂේත‍්‍රය පිළබඳව ලිඛිතව සකස් කළ සිය යෝජනා භාර දුන් බව ජාතික ධීවර සහයෝගීතාවය පවසයි. 

දකුණේ ධීවර සහයෝගිතාවයේ ප‍්‍රාදේශිය කමිටු ලේකම්වරිය අදහස් දක්වමින් "කුඩා ධීවරයාට සිදුවෙන අසාධාරණයත් තහනම් ආම්පන්න නිසා සාගරයට සිදුවන විනාශයත් නැතිකරන්නට අවශ්‍ය විධි විධාන ගැනීම අවශ්‍යයැයි මා යෝජනා කළා." යැයි පැවසීය.  

"වෙරළාසන්න ධීවරයා සම්බන්ධව මීට වඩා සිතිය යුතු බවත් වෙරළ තීරය තුළ ඉඳිකිරීම් සිදුකිරිමේදි වෙරළාසන්න ධීවරයාට අසාධාරණයක් නොවන ආකාරයෙන් ඒවා ඉඳිකළ යුතු බවටත් මම යෝජනා කළා.  ඒ වගේම අද බහුලව අසන්නට ලැබෙන ලමා අපචාර එමෙන්ම කාන්තා හිංසනය හා මත්ද්‍රව්‍ය උවදුර නැතිකිරිමට පියවර ගන්නා ලෙසටත්  ඊට හවුල් වන පුද්ගලයින්ට තරාතිරම නොබලා දඩුවම් කරන ලෙසට විධි විධාන සැකසිය යුතු යැයි මම යෝජනා කළා." යැයි කළුතර සිට පැමිණ සිටි දමයන්ති මෙනවිය ප‍්‍රකාශ කළා. 

මහජන අදහස් විමසීමේ පළමු දවසේ ප‍්‍රතිචාරය වඩා යහපත් බවත් විද්වතුන් මෙන්ම රටේ ජීවත්වන සාමාන්‍ය ජනතාවද පැමිණ මේ සඳහා සිය අදහස් ලබාදීම වැදගත් බවත් , එය අපේක්‍ෂා කරන බවත් කමිටුවේ සභාපති අධිනිතිඥ ලාල් විජේනායක පැවසීය.

කමිටුව සමග සම්බන්ධ විය හැකි ආකාර-

දුරකථන – 0112437676
ෆැක්ස් – 0112328780
ඊමේල් – constitutionalreforms@gmail.com
වෙබ් – www.yourconstitution.lk

තැපෑල -
සභාපති
ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථා සංශෝධන පිළිබද මහජන අදහස් විමසීමේ කමිටුව
ලේකම් කාර්යාලය,
කොළඹ 02.

Pictures-NAFSO

-මෙලනි