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Sri Lanka’s navy is now free to patrol the strait, much of which was once controlled by the separatists. It is also interested in these waters because of the island’s ongoing ethnic tensions, says Madura Rasaratnam at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Since the war ended, southern fishermen from Sri Lanka's Sinhalese community have started ranging farther north and plying the waters. Sri Lanka’s authorities are keen to protect their livelihoods, Ms Rasaratnam says, if not those of the island’s own beleaguered Tamils.Via http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2013/04/tamil-nadu-and-sri-lanka