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Murali calls for more aid for tsunami fishermen

HAMBANTOTA (Sri Lanka): Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has called for greater support for the island’s fishermen after visiting the south coast with team mates to hand out aid to tsunami victims.

Muralitharan, one of the world’s leading players and a United Nations ambassador for the World Food Programme, said he was deeply shocked after visiting Hambantota, a fishing town where locals say up to 15,000 people are dead or missing. The densely populated beachfront centre of the town and a local market, packed with around 4,000 traders and shoppers, was decimated by giant waves early on Boxing Day morning. “I have now seen so many towns and villages along the east and south coasts, many of which were hit extremely badly, but I’m deeply shocked by what I have seen here – this town is probably the worst affected,” Muralitharan told reporters.

Fishermen, living in temporary plastic tents on the rubble of their homes, told Muralitharan that only about five of the town’s 400 fishing trawlers were seaworthy while most of their traditional sea canoes had also been destroyed. “We need to help them,” Muralitharan added. “They have lost parents, wives, children and the pain they are going through is terrible. The main thing in this town was fishing and now they have nothing. They need help to rebuild their livelihoods and become self-sufficient once more.”

Muralitharan, accompanied by Sri Lanka vice-captain Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Nuwan Zoysa and Avishka Gunawardene, visited 10 emergency relief camps during a two-day tour around Galle, Matara, Tangalle and Hanbantota. reuters

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