Geoffrey Dobbs leaves country amidst probe on national flag fiasco
Sathiya Madhureka (27), a mother of two, sat aimlessly in front of her partially built house, on the Wennappuwa coast, looking at the ocean for any signs of a multi-day fishing trawler. As night fell, she switches on the small television set. Between news bulletins, she would hurriedly tune in on a radio.
She is waiting to hear news about the fate of her 26-year-old husband, Manoj Malinda. He and five others set out to sea from the fishing village of Dummaladeniya last September 8, to return in the first week of October . But they never came.
This has been her preoccupation since the owner of ‘Sankalpa 3’ received a radio message. They had all been arrested by the Indian Coast Guard for allegedly poaching in their economic zone- a charge they strongly deny.
“My husband has been a fishermen for the past six years. This is the first time my husband has been arrested. He has been kept in custody for the last two months.”
“Hours after the trawler left, they had radioed a message to the boat owner, saying they had been taken into custody by the Indian coastguard.
On the following day the boat owner had personally called over to convey the message to her.
“From the day my husband and other crew members were captured, it has been the boat owner who has been providing food for our families.”
“My eldest child keeps asking for the father. Life is hard without him,” she said.
W. Janani Preethika (28) the mother of a six-month infant is another woman from the same village, whose husband is languishing in Indian custody.
“My husband’s ambition was to collect money to complete our partly built house before Christmas. But our dreams have been shattered with his arrest”, she said.
“After my husband’s arrest, he managed to speak to me on a mobile phone. He told me they expected to be released soon.”
“More than the financial difficulties, it is the mental agony that is hard on me,” she said.
Those in custody are reported to be undergoing tough conditions with only one meal per day.
Nishantha Appuhamy (40) a father of three, is the owner of two trawlers, who has visited the Sri Lankan fishermen in Indian custody.
“Prison conditions are very poor. Some of them are suffering from diarrhoea, while two others were on a drip, when I visited them,” Appuhamy explained.
He said two of his trawlers had left Negombo on October 28, heading for the Arabian Sea through Indian territorial waters as was the usual practice and recognised by international conventions.
“However, as the first boat reached Indian territorial waters they were apprehended. The first vessel then alerted the second one which was 40 nautical miles away. They immediately changed course and entered international waters via the seas off the south west of the country,” he related.
Sujith Samantha (39) from Wennappuwa is another victim. His trawler, with an estimated value of Rs 6 million, with six crew members, is presently in Indian custody.
“I have to pay Rs 200,000 per month as its finance, which I am unable to do now,” he explained.
He said they spend Rs 1.5 million per trip.
“I will have to mortgage my house to repay the bank instalment.”
“I have requested the authorities to provide assistance.”
As many as 154 Sri Lanka fishermen, including the 15 arrested on Wednesday, off Andhra Pradesh, are in Indian custody.
In Wennappuwa alone, more than 20 families wait in anguish for news of their release. They follow the news bulletins and keep in regular touch with the boat owners for information.
Last week, more than 40 fisher families, whose members are being held in India, protested outside the Fisheries Ministry in Maligawatte, seeking government intervention to secure the release of the men held.
Gampaha District Fisheries Federation President D. Jude Perera told the Sunday Times that Fisheries Minister Dr Rajith Senaratne and his Deputy Sarath Kumara Gunaratne assured them they would do their utmost to secure the release of the fishermen.“Most of the Sri Lankan fishermen have been arrested while trying to enter international waters using safe passage through Indian territorial waters,” Mr Perera explained.
He said that all fishermen heading to the high seas or international waters, carry with them a licence issued by the Dept of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
It says that the licence is granted in terms of the provisions of UN Law of the Sea Convention 1982, the UN Fish Stock Agreement 1995 and Resolutions of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission and the specific conditions of the licence.
The licence specifies that fishing is permitted in the high seas of the Indian ocean, outside the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of another coastal State.
He said that, earlier, local fishermen using the Indian pathway to enter international waters were not hindered, but in recent weeks, more and more of them have been arrested.As the fishing dispute intensifies, more and more families continue to be tormented, with some of them appealing to their loved ones not to engage in fishing, as it is turning out to be a dangerous profession which could leave one languishing in jail for months.
The chief architect of the annual Galle Literary Festival (GLF), British born naturalised Australian Geoffrey Dobbs has been identified as the foreigner who slipped out of the country amidst a probe for disrespecting the national flag inside the Galle Fort during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) earlier this month.
A senior official with the Emigration and Immigration Department told the Sunday Times yesterday that Mr. Dobbs is reported to have placed the national flag upside down in protest of the Australian national flag being positioned in the same manner in Galle during the period of the summit.
According to the official, who did not wish to be named, two teams had been detailed to investigate the incident when Mr. Dobbs left the country unannounced.
He added that the Department had initiated the inquiry following a complaint received from authorities in Galle.
Mr. Dobbs lived mainly in Galle for nearly a decade owning several businesses and was also instrumental in arranging the GLF, a gathering of literary persona from all over the world in line with the famous Jaipur Lit fest.
Other sources said Mr. Dobbs had initially photographed the Australian national flag in the upside down position and taken the matter up with the area police, but stopped short of making an official complaint.
Thereafter, the Australian is alleged to have done the same thing to Sri Lanka's national flag because the police had failed to act, sources associated with Mr. Dobbs told the Sunday Times.
Last year he had had a heated stand-off with the former Mayor of Galle, Methsiri De Silva over the non-payment of municipal taxes for advertisements displayed during the GLF.
Mr. De Silva said yesterday that he had ordered that the advertisements be taken down after Mr. Dobbs ignored several requests to meet the necessary payments on that occasion.
“Mr. Dobbs later used political influence to get the advertisements back on the street but without success and was forced to pay the taxes,” Mr. De Silva added.