TN fishermen tell story of Tiger horror

Eleven Tamil Nadu fishermen, missing since early March, returned home on Friday evening and confirmed to the police and the media in Chennai yesterday that they had been abducted by the LTTE on March 12 and released two days ago.

The fishermen also confirmed what the Tamil Nadu police had suspected all along – that they had been taken away because the 'Sea Tigers' wanted to make use of their vessel, 'Sri Krishna'.

They had initially been kept in a Mannar island whose name was unknown to them, and later shifted to other places they could identify as 'LTTE-controlled' from the many photographs and portraits of Velupillai Prabhakaran and people listening to the 'Tamil Eelam Radio'.

They were initially a group of 12, but one unfortunate man, Simon Joey from Kollam in Kerala, had been retained on 'Sri Krishna', apparently because the 'Sea Tigers' found good use for his technical skills. The rest, all from Tamil Nadu, were kept for about 35 days in a forest and later shifted to other places. Simon was probably forced to be on 'Sea Tiger' arms transport missions.

Authorities in Chennai believe that Simon may now be in Maldivian custody. When the Maldivian Coastguard sank a suspected 'Sea Tiger' vessel on Thursday, it captured five persons, one of them said to be Malayalam-speaking. If this person is Simon, India will be keen to obtain his release.

Simon could be a treasure-house of information on the functioning of the Sea Tiger and their logistic operations, as he was probably working with the 'Sea Tigers' for more than two months.

Tamil Nadu police chief D. Mukherjee told the media that he was happy that the stand of the State police that it was the LTTE that abducted the fishermen had been vindicated.

“Some people disbelieved us when we said they had been taken away by the LTTE, but we now have the fishermen's own testimony to confirm that our earlier statement was correct,” he said, presenting the 11 fishermen before the media.

J. Clements, leader of the group of fishermen, narrated the sequence of events that began with the vessel leaving Kodimunai in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu on March 6. They had been reported missing from around that day.

Two fibre-glass boats carrying LTTE men seized their boat off Erwadi near Rameswaram on March 12, he said. “They asked all of us to get into their boats, but Simon was asked to remain in Sri Krishna. I pleaded with them to let me join Simon, as he could not speak Tamil, but they beat me up and pushed me into the fibre glass boat along with others.”They were initially taken to a forest area. “It was terrible… 11 of us had to share five mats, in a place infested with snakes, lizards and scorpions. The food was unpalatable,” Clements said.

The Tigers threatened to shoot them if they tried to escape, but often told them that being their “brethren” across the sea, the fishermen should help their cause.

The Tigers had first told them they wanted to use their boat for a week, after which they would be allowed to return to India. However, that week stretched to several times that duration. They were in a forest on an island for some time, later in a prison near a temple. They were told to hide in bunkers whenever there was shelling. Once they were shifted because air strikes were expected.

Finally, the 11 fishermen were released on Thursday and left on the island of Iranaitheevu. Some other fishing boats from Tamil Nadu were asked to transport them to Rameswaram.

They came back in two boats, one of which landed around 4.30 p.m. on Friday at Narikuli near Rameswaram, and another around 7.45 p.m . at Thangachimadam, a few kilometres away.

The fishermen could not say why the Tigers had released them, but the police suspect that the LTTE, which had denied any role in the disappearance of the fishermen, had been waiting for an appropriate moment to send them back. With news trickling out that Sri Krishna had been sunk, and some of its occupants captured, the Tigers may have decided that the moment had arrived.