Lanka turns back Tamil aid ship

Sri Lankan authorities Monday ordered a foreign-owned ship carrying aid for Tamil civilians to leave the island without unloading its cargo, reports Sutirtho Patranobis.

Sri Lanka on Monday turned back the ship carrying aid for the displaced Tamil civilians without allowing it to unload its cargo.

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The 92-metre-long Syrian-registered ship had set sail from a port in France on May 7, claiming to be carrying some 880 metres of food and medicine. Fifteen crew members including a former Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission member Kristjan Guomundsson were said to be on board.

The website of the group that organised the mission admitted the voyage may have violated international shipping safety procedures.

Navy spokesperson, DKP Dassanayake, said: “It has illegal cargo. It is not a relief ship. The ship was coming without intimation. We stopped the ship as it entered Lanka’s economic zone.’’