Talking Tall on Human Rights From your neck of the wood leaving Kashmir Bangladesh Punjab Assam etc aside


India, Sri Lankan Navy, LTTE and Tamil Nadu Fishermen

The Maria Episode and Investigation

Usha Ramanathan

TAMIL TRIBUNE, May 2007 (ID. 2007-05-01)
This article is archived at: http://www.geocities.com/tamiltribune/07/0501.html


OUTLINE

1. Background

2. A Boat Named Maria

3. Reality Check: An Analysis of Police Conclusions

4. Eyewitness Identification

5. What is the Evidence Against LTTE?

6. What Could Have Happened?

7. Why Would India Frame LTTE?

ABBREVIATIONS

See end of the article

1. Background

Sri Lankan Navy has been shooting and killing Tamilnadu fishermen for over 15 years. In spite of repeated requests from Tamil Nadu chief ministers (M. Karunanidhi and J. Jeyalalithaa), Indian government had done nothing effective to put an end to it. In early 2007, as the number of killings increased, pressure mounted on the Indian government to do something the stop the killings. Tamilnadu chief minister repeatedly wrote to the Indian prime minister as usual. The main political parties (DMK, AIADMK, PMK, MDMK, Congress Party, BJP, DPI, DMDK and CPI) asked the Indian government to act. DMK and BJP held protest demonstrations demanding action. Fishermen also went on a one-day strike and fast. As the heat was on the Indian government to do something to stop the Sri Lankan Navy, India`s Chief of the Naval Staff (Admiral Sureesh Mehta) and Naval Officer-in-Charge of Tamil Nadu area (P. E. Vanhaltren) issued statements that it was not the Sri Lankan Navy but may be the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) or Tamil Nadu fishermen fighting amongst themselves and killing each other. No one in Tamil Nadu believed those excuses. Demand for action against the Sri Lankan Navy continued. It was under these circumstances the episode of a boat named Maria occurred.

2. A Boat Named Maria

March 29, 2007:

Eight Tamil Nadu fishermen were in the sea on their boat Red Sun. Suddenly two boats came towards them. Each boat carried about eight men. One boat had the name Maria painted on it. The men shot at the Tamilnadu fishermen. Three fishermen fell into the sea and drowned (presumed dead). Two died of injuries. The three surviving fishermen brought the two bodies home. Survivors told that their attackers did not wear any uniform. Indian Navy and Coast Guard launched an extensive air and sea search for the boat Maria. More ships were brought in to carry out the search for Maria. (It is noteworthy that, in the past 100 or so shootings where survivors accused the Sri Lankan Navy, no such extensive sea and air search operation was launched.) All newspapers in Tamil Nadu and a number of them in rest of India and Sri Lanka carried the news about the boat Maria and the extensive search operation by Indian Navy and Coast Guard.

April 11, 2007:

Indian Coast Guard found a boat with the name Maria painted on it off Tutucorin Coast, Tamil Nadu. According to Indian officials the boat carrying six Sri Lankan Tamils had some snag and six Tamil Nadu fishermen who saw them in the sea were helping them. A Coast Guard vessel saw this and detained the Sri Lankan Tamils and the boat. The six Sri Lankan Tamils in the boat were handed over to Tamil Nadu police. The fishermen who survived the March 29 shooting were shown the captured boat Maria and the six Sri Lankan Tamils. They told police that the boat was not the one that attacked them (although it had the name Maria painted on it) and also the six men were not their attackers. So the killings of March 29 cannot be pinned on the six Sri Lankan Tamils. So they were held for violation of Indian Passports Act (essentially, entering Indian territorial waters without permission). [Tutucorin is known as Thoothukudi in Tamil.]

April 23, 2007:

The case was transferred to Q Branch of Tamil Nadu Police. This is the branch that investigates cases associated with extremist activities (including LTTE activities). Under Q Branch interrogation, the six Sri Lankan Tamils allegedly told them that: (1) They were LTTE cadres of the sea wing (The Sea Tigers). (2) They were smuggling weapons and ammunition for LTTE. (3) The boat Maria was the same boat that attacked (shot and killed) the Tamil Nadu fishermen On March 29. (4) Some other LTTE cadres were smuggling weapons and ammunition using Maria on that day and they shot the fishermen suspecting them to be spying on them.

April 27-28, 2007:

Many newspapers in India and Sri Lanka carried headline news that LTTE was responsible for the killing of five Tamilnadu fishermen.

3. Reality Check: An Analysis of Police Conclusions

Let us start with the assumption that it was LTTE cadres who attacked Tamil Nadu fishermen on March 29 and they were in a boat painted with the name Maria. Almost all major newspapers in Tamil Nadu, rest of India and Sri Lanka carried the news that a boat named Maria was responsible for killing Tamil Nadu fishermen and an extensive Indian Navy and Coast Guard sea and air search for Maria was underway. So LTTE knew that Maria was suspect and there was a search for it. Will they send the same boat to carry on weapons smuggling in an area not far from where they know air and sea search operations are going on? Will they not at the least remove the name Maria and paint another name on it? What the police say does not pass the reality check. What they say cannot be true. It smells of framing the LTTE to absolve the Sri Lankan Navy. It can only be that the Indian government is framing the LTTE and absolving the Sri Lankan Navy, in order to remove the pressure from Tamil Nadu to act against Sri Lankan Navy for shooting and killing its fishermen.

4. Eyewitness Identification

The most important piece of evidence that clears LTTE of the killings is the statement by fishermen who survived the March 29 shooting. They were shown the boat and the six Sri Lankan Tamils detained on April 11. They told police that it was not the boat that attacked them on March 29. So, on what evidence, did police reach the conclusion that LTTE was responsible for the killing?

5. What is the Evidence Against LTTE?

Given the survivors` statement that the detained boat was not the one that attacked them, what is the basis for the police to say that it was the same boat that attacked and killed the fishermen on March 29? Police has only two pieces of evidence: (1) The name Maria is painted on the boat, (2) The six Sri Lankan Tamils in the boat tell police under interrogation that this was the boat that carried the men who killed the fishermen.

Let us look at these two pieces of evidence with a critical eye: (1) Boats do not have unique names; a number of boats can have the same name. Anyone can paint any name on a boat. (2) Experts say that you can make prisoners say anything you want them to say under torture. Prisoners can also be induced to say things in exchange for lenient sentences and better prison conditions. All that the prisoners could say is that they heard that some LTTE cadres killed Tamil Nadu fishermen. They did not see it themselves. This is what is called hearsay evidence. That is, somebody heard something about a crime and they have no first hand knowledge of the crime (they were not there, they did not see it). Dictionary definition for hearsay is ``unverified information acquired from another``.

In short, no impartial judge would ever convict someone of murder on the basis of statements made by a group of prisoners and a name painted on a boat, in spite of survivors` testimony that the boat that attacked them was not the same.

6. What Could Have Happened?

March 29 survivors` identification of the boat as one painted with the name Maria gives Indian government an opportunity to frame LTTE and absolve Sri Lanka Navy. India paints the name Maria on a boat, puts six Sri Lankan Tamils in its custody and asks them to sail into the sea. (There are many Sri Lankan Tamils in Indian custody.) Then the Indian Coast Guard arrests them in the presence of some Tamil Nadu fishermen who happened to be around that location at that time. The six Sri Lankan Tamils were asked to say that LTTE was responsible for the March 29 killings, in exchange for better prison conditions or reduced sentences for whatever reasons they were under custody. Or, they were tortured to say so.

However, India encountered a hurdle. The surviving fishermen of the March 29 shooting said that the boat detained on April 11 was not the boat that attacked them. This is the only solid evidence in this case but it is brushed aside because it does not support Indian attempt to pin the killings on LTTE and absolve the Sri Lankan Navy.

This is likely what India did. Even if what I say here in this section (Section 6) was not the scenario, one thing is certain. It did not happen as the police say, because of reasons discussed in Section 3, 4 and 5.

7. Why Would India Frame LTTE?

Why would India frame LTTE for the killings of Tamil Nadu fishermen? By putting the blame on someone other than the Sri Lankan Navy, Indian government hopes that the government, politicians and people of Tamil Nadu would no longer demand that India act sternly against the Sri Lankan Navy--something that the Indian government has been refusing to do for over 15 years of killings [Reference 1 - 2]. Why else would the Indian government disbelieve over 100 independent, separate eyewitness reports of surviving fishermen saying that the Sri Lankan Navy was shooting at them, and believe the statement of a group of six prisoners pointing to someone else? Why else would police ignore the one piece of hard evidence in the case--survivor`s statement that the boat in Indian custody was not the boat that attacked them?

ABBREVIATIONS

AIADMK - All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagam

BJP - Bharatiya Janata Party

CPI - Communist Party of India

DMDK - Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam

DMK - Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

DPI - Dalit Panthers of India (known as ``Viduthalai Siruththakal`` in Tamil)

LTTE - Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

MDMK - Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

PMKI - Pataali Makkal Katchi

This is a ``Category A`` article. If you wish to republish this article or its translation in your print publication or web site Click here.

REFERENCES

1. Killings of Tamil Nadu Fishermen Continue with Impunity (by Usha Ramanathan), TAMIL TRIBUNE, September 2004 (23 KB)

2. Is Tamil Blood Cheap in the Eyes of Indian Government? (by Usha Ramanathan), TAMIL TRIBUNE, April 2007 (6 KB)

3. Gujral and the Fishermen (by Usha Ramanathan), TAMIL TRIBUNE, December 1997 (15 KB)

Talking Tall on Human Rights Juzst B/c it happens in PakistAn it does not make you saint....
Raw is implicated in the following incidents

A car bomb explosion in the Saddar area of Peshawar on 21 December 1995, which caused the death of 37 persons and injured over 50 others.

An explosion at Shaukat Khanum Hospital on 14 April 1996, claiming the lives of seven persons and injuries to over 34 others.

A bus traveling from Lahore to Sahiwal was blown up at Bhai Pheru on 28 April 1996, causing the deaths of 44 persons on the spot and injuring 30 others.

An explosion in a bus near the Sheikhupura Hospital killed nine persons and injured 29 others on 08 May 1996.

An explosion near Alam Chowk, Gujranwala on 10 June 1996 which killed three persons and injured 11 others.

A bomb exploded on a bus on GT Road near Kharian on 10 June 1996, killing 2 persons and injuring 10 others.

On 27 June 1996, an explosion opposite Madrassah Faizul Islam, Faizabad, Rawalpindi, killed 5 persons and injured over 50 others.

A bomb explosion in the Faisalabad Railway Station passenger lounge on 8 July 1996 killed 3 persons and injured 20 others

The Lament Of Bengal\'s Luddites #9 Tvarad
True Industrial revolution was missed by India and may in inform u China is also not indutrialised they are JUST trying
the reault of it will be seen in the future and cannot be counted as yet.
Chinese majority are living in rural areas and still cultivate and are farmers despite the hype about china...
The information technology as touched ever country rich and poor and do not be too happy to be giving all u r hard money to reliance and other capilatists when its use is more abused than necessary...
can cell phone feed you or physically transport you or wash you dishes or cook u r food

The Lament Of Bengal\'s Luddites #8 Tvard
USA is very resource full and large country with no food shortage atleast capacity to cultivate on its own if it was needed
lthough at the present it imports everything from oil ,coal, to food...

comParing the usa to the poor farmers of benami lands is apple and oranges more like gluttony to stavation .
Not veryy ong ago common perception and real;ity was reflected in rascist remark `bhooka bangali`
there have been famine twice in bengal and not more than 3 decades ago riots for high prices of rice the staple diet there.

The tatas as you said are planning for whole asia and how is it be useful to bengal or india

in the competitive market even G.M is being ousted by Toyota...
Ambassador wihih is made inBengal Uttarpara is amost closed
why another car factory ?

and not revive the ambassador car factory...

Fake Killings: People as Trophies Encounters or extra judicial killings are not a new phenomena for Indian state, though it has

changed its position or acceptability in the public psyche for past few years. Thanks goes largely to the Mumbai film industry for making several films `inspired` by the real life of an encounter specialist.

After the box office success of such films, one can say that the act of extra judicial killing , which otherwise is a gross violation of the Justice system, the very aspect of our Constitution( by denying the fundamental right to live), the civil liberties and the human rights, now got legitimacy in the Indian society.

Militant Liberalism #53 by haji004

“Commander-in-Chief (President), Prime Minister, Governor State Bnk and all three commanders of forces (Army,Air Force,Navy)are Urdu-Speaking”
.............................................

You Haji as birtching as some biatch about India having Sikh prime minister muslim President And Sikh again KK singh as C N C of army...
you are biatch alround

Fake Killings: People as Trophies #82 you understand exactly the issue but if you want the last WORD u can have IT

i will not POST ANY MORE

Fake Killings: People as Trophies #80``Of course Bill G should do community service for that execrable bit of software they call Windoze``
I gree with you Bill Gates made his money NOT by selling skaletons AFTER stealing them.I used them but by donation not by corruption and racketeering..In case you forgot above all Bill G is doing lot of c ommunity service and not like Gujratis

Fake Killings: People as Trophies Vanzara arrest hope for ‘living dead’
SUJAN DUTTA

Sohrabuddin with wife Kauser Bi in front of the Taj
When police came to his house on Mogul Street in the predominantly Muslim locality of Ahmedabad’s Kalupur Panch Patti, it wasn’t very late.

“I think it was around 10 pm. There were about 10 or 15 of them and they wanted my son,” recalls Karimi Mohammed Habeeb. “I told them my son went out in the morning and I haven’t seen him since.”

Habeeb did not know his son had been picked up by the police in the morning. He says the police took him to their establishment in Shahi Bagh’s bungalow No. 15 and confined him for four days after he signed on two blank sheets.

Now, nearly four years since that incident and emboldened by the arrest of DIG D.G. Vanzara, Habeeb wants the case against his son re-opened. His son Kalim Ahmed has not been back home since that morning of April 3, 2003. He is in Sabarmati Central Jail.

The families of the accused in Prevention of Terrorism Act cases in Gujarat are now encouraged to question every action of the state police in court since the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case emerged and Vanzara was arrested.

“Sohrabuddin is dead. But what about us? We are surviving, our sons are in jail but we seem to be forgotten like we are the living dead,” says Alina Bibi Alla Rakha of house no. 2202 in Panch Kuan.

If Vanzara is sent to jail over the fake encounter case, he may be a co-inmate of people he arrested and dealt with sternly, some say brutally. But there is an apprehension among the police that Vanzara should not be sent to the same jail where some of his victims are. He may be sent to a jail in Mehsana because the Intelligence Bureau has also warned of a threat to his life.

Kalim was charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, repealed two years back . He stands accused of planting “tiffin bombs” in five city buses and also of being involved in killing former Gujarat minister Haren Pandya.

According to the police, Kalim was arrested in Hyderabad, was linked to a jihadi conspiracy sponsored by Pakistan’s ISI and even trained in Pakistan for 15 days. “But my son keeps telling me that he was picked up in Kalupur,” says Habeeb. “They have taken a confession from him.”

Lawyer Mukul Sinha, who is also an activist of the Jan Sangharsh Manch, says there is enough reason to doubt the veracity of confessions “extracted through third-degree torture and extra-legal methods by Vanzara and his men”.

He estimates there are 80 youths with anti-terror cases foisted on them in state jails.

Alina Bi’s son, 32-year-old Ahmed Hussain, is a maulana. He was picked up on May 10, 2003, and sent to jail after 41 days in police custody. Those 41 days, says Alina, broke him.

Mohammed Owais Abdur Rashid Machiswala’s is a similar tale. His younger brother, 30-year-old Mohammed Anas, was also picked up on April 3. “For three days,” he says, “my brother was hung upside down and beaten. Anyone will confess to anything after that,” he weeps.

The Lament Of Bengal\'s Luddites #4
Unfortunately there are only few who can ask these questions....

both FDI and SEZ is being sold without concern of its effect on common people & whether or not it can be feasible given the constraints of adequate infra stucture

Fake Killings: People as Trophies #69
In India caste & religion matters .What is the reservation fiasco about is it not about caste?

How many uppercaste Brahmin killed in encounter ?But then it is lower in the socio economic order who fill up the jails ever wonder?

Burqa Vaganza – A Satirical Backlash
#282 by echoboom on May 8, 2007 11:56am PT
``MiZzGaaN toa khole! Shehr ko Sailaab lay gayaa``....Meer Taqi Meer.
tr:
Open your eyes! the Entire City has been swept away!


CLICK.
Islam Youngest Muslim Reverts.

.........................................
Let Arjun learn somthing may be he will revert... revese psychology..he harps about Brits inspite ..of the fact i have first hand experience of living U.K

Burqa Vaganza – A Satirical Backlash # arjun 269 he arjun weorry about languishing Madhab Devi for 15 yers in confinement for NOTHINGSir —

It is ironic that just a day after India became a $1-trillion economy (“Billion with a trillion on paper”, April 27), came the front-page news of Madhabi Das being imprisoned in a room for five years. This shows that all claims of India having progressed are plain hogwash. Reaching a particular figure in the GDP growth chart cannot make India a ‘modern’ nation, on a par with its Western counterparts, when the outlook of the majority of its population remains frozen in the Middle Ages.

Yours faithfully,
Yagnaseni Roy, Siliguri





Sir — Cases like that of Madhabi Das abound in India, though only a few get exposed. Even Madhabi had to endure fifteen years of partial and total confinement before she was ‘discovered’ and rescued. And for one Madhabi rescued, there are still hundreds launguishing within abusive domestic spaces.


Yours faithfully,

The Lament Of Bengal\'s Luddites Nadigram Killings
OUR BUREAU

Calcutta, May 7: The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government has set in motion an elaborate administrative process to try and restore peace in Nandigram.

The first signals came from a Left Front meeting and a strategy session at Writers’ Buildings during the day, though it may be some more time before police try to enter the battle zone.

By the evening, both the CPM and the Trinamul Congress made appeals that those who have been forced to flee their homes be allowed to return. The CPM has been making this demand for the last few months, but Trinamul’s appeal is being seen as a positive signal for normality to return to the area.

The first objective of the administrative initiative will be to prevent further clashes between CPM and Opposition activists.

Additional reinforcements of the Eastern Frontier Rifles and the Indian Reserve Police will be moved into the fringe areas of Nandigram from tonight. The number of police camps on the border between the areas dominated by the warring groups will also be increased.

Simultaneously, the distribution of food and other relief material to the affected people will begin, aimed at restoring their confidence in the administration. The revival of the public distribution system at Nandigram, including for the people living in relief camps, will be given top priority. Repair of roads and other administrative interventions will follow later.

The package of administrative measures is expected to assume a greater role in Nandigram in the coming days because the political initiative so far has failed to contain violence. Worse, the attempts to deal with the situation at the political level created something of a vacuum.

In line with the chief minister’s stand at yesterday’s meeting of the CPM state committee, Jyoti Basu today hinted that the administration should be given a freer hand.

Basu admitted that CPM workers, too, were still indulging in violence. “I heard that our people are also throwing bombs from the Khejuri side. What are the police doing?” Basu was quoted as saying at the meeting.

Significantly, at Writers’ Buildings, home secretary P.R. Ray, too, said attacks were still being launched from Khejuri, a CPM stronghold. “There is no denying the fact that attacks are being made from camps in Khejuri. We have asked the district administration to ensure that such attacks are stopped,” he said.

The government seems to have decided that the violence on the fringes of Nandigram, particularly from Khejuri, must be stopped before peace could be restored.

All this does not, however, completely negate the political process. The Left Front meeting today struck a different note for the political initiative. “If needed, our partners can open dialogue, individually or jointly, with Opposition leaders to restore peace in Nandigram,” front chairman Biman Bose said.

Bhattacharjee readily accepted a proposal from RSP leader Kshiti Goswami that the allies be made part of the political initiative. Goswami followed it up with a phone call to the Trinamul office.

Mamata Banerjee, however, said she would study the Left’s proposals carefully before responding to it.

The administration, too, has decided to talk to the parties separately.

Fake Killings: People as Trophies Prahant whatever you are one SICKO satyriasasic

The Lament Of Bengal\'s Luddites ``carrying a debt-burden of INR 150,000 crore, would offer a freebie of INR 850 crore (if one adds up the above mentioned benefits) to an industrial group without an equal or beneficial reciprocation on its part``
...............................
The (Masxist )CPM is not true to its people..
still Budha to joyti basu
and so are big shots of party are higher caste...
the cpm neta`ss are now new lallas of bengal amassing wealth and property