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| Sunday, 23 March 2003 |
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Charges traded over Chinese trawler by Ananth Palakidnar and Ramani Kangaraarachchi The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission will meet the Sea Tigers to hold an inquiry into the attack on a fishing trawler in the Mullaitivu waters on Thursday, informed sources said. The SLMM unit in Trincomalee submitted a preliminary report on the incident to its head office in Colombo yesterday. The report contains the statement made by the skipper of the ill-fated Chinese fishing craft and the crew. The crew in the vessel have claimed that the attack was carried out from an LTTE vessel with Tigers carrying small arms. The SLMM unit in Jaffna is to meet the Sea Tiger leaders in Vanni today. The ill-fated Chinese vessel had been fishing in the area for the past ten days when it came under attack and it sailed from Colombo with a Sri Lankan flag, sources said. The Foreign Ministry is also in contact with the Chinese Embassy in Colombo and the SLMM with regard to the incident, sources said. Secretary to the Foreign Ministry Nihal Rodrigo said that the Chinese embassy officials met him on Friday evening and the Ministry will be issuing a statement tomorrow. Navy Commander Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri said the LTTE would have allegedly attacked the vessel for two reasons, either to attack and place the blame on the Navy or to show their displeasure at foreigners poaching in Sri Lanka's territorial waters. The LTTE has denied any involvement in the attack through their Tamilnet website. The ill-fated trawler was identified as Fu-Yung-Yu 225 belonging to a BOI registered Chinese Company. Seventeen fishermen are believed to have been killed in the incident. |
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