Bereaved families got only the money, justice still a long shot
Justice eludes the bereaved families and survivors of the ill-fated fishing boat, St Antony, which came under "unprovoked" firing from Italian marines on board the oil tanker, Enrica Lexie, off the Kerala shores on February 15 last year.
The most visible commiseration came in the form of a quick relief by the shipping company, which paid `1 crore each to families of Jelestine, 50, and Ajish Pinky, 21, who were killed in the firing. Jelestine's family lives in Kollam in Kerala while the unmarried Pinky's siblings live at Thuthur near Kaliyikkavila in Tamil Nadu. With parents dead, the siblings are under the care of their aunt, Ms Jennet Mary.
The kin of the slain fishermen have no doubt that the marines deserve deterrent punishment. More, every fishing boat on the Indian coast is at the potential risk of being hit by trigger-happy marshals on foreign merchant vessels.
"You can't buy our honour for `1 crore; even if you give us several crores, I will still demand that the marines be brought back and tried by the law of the land. Or, they would do this again. Need not be Italians, some others on different foreign vessels that pass by their hundreds along the Arabian coast", said Ms Jennet Mary. Mr J. Freddy, skipper of the illfated fishing boat, St Antony, and Ms Dora, widow of Jelestine (Valentine), feel they have been shortchanged by the system, apathetic towards a social outlier community. The apathy raises questions on the commitment of the State in prosecuting the killers.
“Letting off the marines to vote in Italy has turned out to be a cruel joke. The trial should have started already, by which India could display its resolve to ensure justice for victims” said Ms Dora.
Said Ms Dora's brother and director of Quilon Social Service Society, Fr Rajesh Martin: “We are ignorant of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic immunity and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. But we follow the local political discourse very much, which sadly hasn't hastened the process of justice”.
True, the political debate is quite strident in Kerala. Tamil Nadu is relatively calm though Ajish Pinky belonged there. “If the Italian ambassador can't bring back the marines, put him in jail”, shouts CPM politburo member and former Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balkrishnan in front of the Government Secretariat.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy couldn't be seen any less combative: “The onus of bringing back the marines is on the Centre”.
But now it’s as if the living seek livelihood options from the dead. When the apathetic system threw him and the eight other surviving crewmen to the vagaries of fate and the law, rustic wisdom drew the skipper Freddy to the widows, wondering whether they could spare some funds for the rest of the survivors.
“Are we the arbiters of the fund in the name of our children; it’s been on account of death the breadwinner?” Mr Freddy quoted Ms Dora’s reaction.
“I used to steer my vessel from its wheelhouse. What a tragedy is this? No job. I can’t be a deckhand”, rues Freddy, whose debts far exceed his `17 lakh settlement with the shipping company.
“After paying the lawyer's fee and allied expenses, I have just `8 lakh left. Though I urged Kerala Government to give me a boat, the authorities came up with impossible conditions”, said Mr Freddy, who has a large family to support.