Stranded fishermen return to Yangon

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, DEC. 15. Six Myanmarese fishermen, who drifted into Indian waters and landed at Poompuhar about five months ago following a storm, left Chennai for Calcutta late this evening, en route to Yangon.

It was a day of expressing gratitude and thanks for the departing fishermen - Ohn Twe, Than Tun, Show Le, Khin Shaw, Niang Win and Aung Myubt - who had never set foot on foreign soil before.

``It is all like a dream. This kind of treatment,'' said Ohn Twe. ``We will always remember this help,'' added Than Tun.

The fishermen said that they had never been to a city as big as Chennai. After the initial problems, including a short-stay at jail, they had been treated very well they said. Though their stay has been relatively short the six kept thinking of their families back in Myanmar, as they were the sole earning members.

The community of Myanmarese repatriates here in Chennai helped them at each stage. Mr. Gurumurthy, secretary, Overseas Indians' Organisation (OIO), himself a repatriate, said that the small gesture on their part would go a long way in strengthening people to people relations between the two countries.

Mr. P. B. Chowdhury, a Myanmar Embassy Representative based in Calcutta, who had come to take the fishermen back, said that the group would fly out from Calcutta to Yangon on December 21.

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