Chinese nationals on navy ships

By Achala Dissanayake

The Sri Lanka Navy had refuted Indian media reports, which quoted Indian fishermen as claiming that Chinese nationals were patrolling the seas along with the Sri Lankan Navy.

Navy Spokesperson Commander D.K.P Dassanayake, speaking to Daily Mirror, stressed that there were no Chinese nationals aboard Sri Lankan Navy ships and insisted that there was no need for any Chinese to be among the Sri Lankan Navy either.

Express Buzz quoted a boat crew of a mechanized boat at Rameswaram claimed that many strangers were seen among the Lankan forces. Liden of Pamban, a boat owner, who claimed that their fishermen saw several Chinese faces among the Lankan Navy personnel on board navy ships and they were  clad in uniforms worn by navy personnel. “These men are harsher in their treatment of captured Indian fishermen,” he added. N J Bose, general secretary of the Tamilnadu Fishermen’s Federation, said that these men, who looked Chinese, attacked Indian fishermen without any warning.

Meanwhile Commander D.K.B Dassanayake also denied allegations made by the Indian news channels that the Sri Lanka Navy, in the guise of eliminating rebel forces, had mistreated Indian fisherman found in Sri Lankan waters. “We deal with them in a very humanitarian way,” Commander Dassanayake said.