Sri Lanka turns back Mercy ship, refuses to let help reach Tamils

by Tamiya | June 6, 2009 at 10:04 pm

273 views | 8 Recommendations | 12 comments

Update:

Sri Lanka turns back Mercy ship [TamilNet, Monday, 08 June 2009, 23:07 GMT]

Government of Sri Lanka turned away the ship, MV Captain Ali, carrying relief supplies to the Tamils held in internment camps, after keeping the ship under Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) custody for nearly 4.5 days, and after admitting that the ship carried purely humanitarian supplies, a press release from the Mercy Mission Head Office in the UK said.

Previously reported ...

Sri Lanka refuses to allow Mercy Ship to unload relief

Despite repeated appeals by the Directors of Mercy Mission, a humanitarian project with a ship loaded with relief items donated by expatriate Tamils in Europe to help Tamils caught up in the war in NorthEast, Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has been detaining the Mercy Mission ship the MV “Captain Ali,” for more than three days, and is refusing to allow the 884 metric tons worth of relief items to be unloaded, sources close to the project said. Latest information indicates Colombo is moving towards returning the ship back to international waters, and force the ship to return to its origination port.

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israeli.agent

at 23:08 on June 6th, 2009

Update ....!

The Government is set to release the Syrian flagged MV Captain Ali that is currently detained by the Navy after it illegally crossed into Sri Lanka’s territorial waters with a shipment of humanitarian aid meant for the displaced people in the north, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said yesterday.

He told The Sunday Times the ship and its crew would most likely be asked to leave once investigators were convinced that the shipment did not include any subversive material but had only humanitarian items.

“So far it has been revealed that the ship did not have any dangerous intentions except that it may have violated certain international maritime laws. We are looking into all these aspects and a decision will be taken soon,” Mr. Rajapaksa said.

The MV Captain Ali with 884 tons of food and other aid entered Sri Lankan waters on Thursday and was immediately detained by the Navy. The vessel and its cargo were later subjected to a thorough inspection by the Navy while the 13-member crew was also questioned.

The vessel is currently anchored some seven kilometres off the Panadura coast with the Navy keeping a 24-hour watch over it. A Navy spokesman said nothing illegal was found on the ship and the fate of the vessel and its crew would be decided by the Government.

.Agent.

sivakaran

at 13:25 on June 9th, 2009

The ship was released but it was not allowed to provide the much needed humanitarian aid. Why?

The Mercy Mission ship is carrying 884 tons of desperately needed emergency humanitarian aid (food, medicine and medical supplies) destined for the approximately 300,000 Tamil civilians held in internment camps by the GoSL.

The Sri Lankan government did not want it to reach the "their" people.

BimsaraB

at 04:57 on June 9th, 2009

At the first place how did this ship end up in the teritorial waters of Sri Lanka?

If thay had shch intentions of corossing the borders of a sovereign nation they should have had the decency of following propor protocol.

I read somewhere this ship was heading towards the Mental State of Eelam. Proberbly she lost her course and directions.

No wonder! the Captain of the Ship is a former SLMM member.

senthil5000

at 18:09 on June 7th, 2009

Update:

The vessel was intercepted by the navy days ago and the government said the expedition was intended to help the now-defeated Tamil Tiger rebels.

But a Tamil spokesman denies this, saying he hoped aid would still reach Tamils displaced by the war.

A navy spokesman could not comment on what would happen to the cargo.

A naval team has been searching the Captain Ali vessel, but the spokesman told the BBC that up to now it had found only food and medical items.

senthil5000

at 21:53 on June 8th, 2009

Sri Lanka dont mind those items getting spoiled as it is sent back but it should not reach tamils... Let us see how much money sri lanka wants from UN and others for the humanatatian aid !!!

israeli.agent

at 22:19 on June 8th, 2009

No getting spoiled and all. MREs has got a shelf life of 5-10 years.

.Agent.

senthil5000

at 08:48 on June 9th, 2009

Your government exposed its real intentions by this.

israeli.agent

at 08:53 on June 9th, 2009

Yes saar.

Anyway "fleedom fighters" of don't need it anymore. So as a humanitarian measure my government sent it back to the KTTEs. One reason is that they don't get their payment anymore as the revenue is drying up. Second reason is Global financial crisis is getting worse. KTTEs can survive with this MREs for a minimum of 2 years.

They should thank Sri Lankan government for such kindness.

.Agent.

CeeGee

at 02:55 on June 10th, 2009

Sri Lanka will accept all and every bit of money offered as long as it is not blood money extracted by the defunct ltte fund collectors.

sivakaran

at 13:11 on June 9th, 2009

Sri Lankan government does not want the international community to find out the truth.

It seems that the future will just be a continuation of the past where the Tamil Diaspora is demonized and the Tamils on the island are treated as second class citizens whose voice is silenced by extra-judicial executions, disappearance, secret detentions, rape, torture, bombing,shelling and starvation and the international community will continue to sit back in silence and allow it to happen because it is an “internal issue”.

http://vannimission.org/2009/06/08/press-release-8th-june/

sivakaran

at 13:17 on June 9th, 2009

Honestly, what else is the reason that the aids were rejected?

For some paper work? come on..real reason is that the government of Sri lanka do not want the Tamil people in the camps to be helped.

A.Rajasingam (not verified)

at 18:36 on June 9th, 2009

There was not an iota of evidence to say that the ship was a rogue ship. It was purely on a humanitarian mission. Perhaps Sri Lanka was disappointed over the 1,9 billion loan, it expected.