A new northern war
Northern fishermen threatened to take to the roads earlier this week as the seas where they ply their trade seem to be out of reach. Their grouse: the Government is on the verge of totally capitulating to persistent efforts by India to allow its fishermen ‘entree’ into Sri Lanka's territorial waters – next time legally.
Though the Sri Lankan Government does not seem to appreciate the fact sufficiently, this is what the Tamil Nadu Fisheries Department says of these waters; "The Gulf of Mannar region at the southern tip of Tamil Nadu is recognised as the richest marine diversity in the world".
But not for long. Armadas of over 1,000 mechanised boats from south India brazenly violate the IMBL (International Maritime Boundary Line) separating Sri Lanka and India to engage in illegal fishing techniques such as bottom-trawling destroying even the plant life. They swoop up tiger prawns, shrimp, squid, sea cucumber and demersal fish varieties, slowly but surely turning the entire region into an oxygen-starved ocean desert. The Tamil Nadu State Government is the biggest winner netting in over a billion dollars worth of foreign exchange with this catch as India's fourth largest fish products exporter.
The IMBL was skilfully negotiated by officials of the Ministry of Defence and External Affairs in the 1970s. The current dispensation is handing over these hard-won gains of Sri Lanka's sovereignty over these waters on a platter – a seafood platter.
The present Indian negotiators seem to have got the better of their Lankan counterparts hamstrung by weak-kneed politicians at the helm in Colombo, and the deafening silence of northern politicians beholden to India. Today's issues have been deftly converted to a 'humanitarian issue' of livelihoods, but it is the livelihoods of the Indian fisherfolk. India has not hesitated to use Sri Lanka's economic crisis to seize the moment to push for an advantage in these troubled waters. The outstanding issue has been downgraded from a Government-toGovernment issue over territorial waters between two sovereign states to a fishermen's union matter. The visit of India’s State Minister for Fisheries ostensibly to declare open the Jaffna Cultural Centre donated by the Indian Government has ensured that this new proposal to issue licences to "small boats" from India to exploit the northern waters on Sri Lanka's side is now on the table.
The Sri Lankan Fisheries Minister denies a decision has been taken, but is silent about a proposal being mooted. Informal discussions are to continue among fishermen's unions at the annual Kachchativu festival this week. Sri Lanka once upon a time issued fishing licences to foreign companies, mostly Chinese, to drop anchor in the southern seas. It proved an ideal licensing scheme for Ministers of Fisheries and officials to make some money from land.
Now, it is the north, with even greater consequences. Legalising an illegal operation which the country does not have the capacity to monitor, will surely compromise this country's national security, open the doors even wider for smuggling, and be the coup de grace for the long-suffering northern fishermen.