Sri Lankan fishermen sit idle, unable to fish during civil conflict

Published: 2006-08-15

MANALKADU, Sri Lanka (CNS) -- Peter Pyananda, a fisherman in the Jaffna seas north of Sri Lanka, has never sat idle -- not even during the tsunami of December 2004. But with fighting increasing between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and government forces, almost the entire coastline of the Jaffna isles has been closed off, preventing fishing. "After the tsunami, we had no problem in going to the sea. But the situation is different now," the Catholic fisherman told Catholic News Service. Government security forces impose severe restrictions on the fishermen, who stay at home, away from the beaches dotted with bunkers. Approximately 80,000 people have been killed and more than 1 million have been displaced since 1983 when Tamil rebels demanded autonomy for areas in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. Ethnic Tamils account for 17 percent of Sri Lanka's 19 million people, while ethnic Sinhalese account for 70 percent of the population.

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