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47 fishermen released: Sri Lanka

COLOMBO: Releasing details of the arrest of Tamil Nadu fisherfolk on Friday, Sri Lanka Navy on Sunday said it arrested 62 fishermen in six fishing trawlers while “poaching in Lankan territorial waters.”

Forty-seven of the detained were released along with two of their boats and were reported to be on their way back home.

The SLA said the fishermen had strayed into the Sri Lanka waters and were arrested for allegedly poaching in the coastal waters 9Nm West of Talawila, in Kalpitiya around 11 a.m., on Friday. “The Navy has conducted a thorough search to ensure that the fishermen were not involved in smuggling warlike material and fuel to the internationally banned terrorist outfit (LTTE).”

It further said that the fishermen were brought to the Navy base in Kalpitiya and handed over to the Kalpitiya police.

Meanwhile, the Disaster Management and Human Rights Ministry regretted the “haste with which the decision to quit” was taken by the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP).

In a statement, the Ministry said the IIGEP is a unique structure hitherto not encountered in any fact-finding exercise anywhere in the world and is mandated to function over a period of one year.

“If the present 11 experts, for whatever reason, feel that they do not want to be part of the IIGEP after the end of March, the Government of Sri Lanka may exercise its rights to source and appoint such number of experts who would be able to discharge the mandate given to the IIGEP to observe and comment on the functioning of the Commission of Inquiry.

“No doubt, if this is done, the new experts will be able to observe and contribute towards the functioning of the CoI in the most interesting and significant phase of its proceedings — viz., its public inquiries into the several important cases before it,” the Ministry said.

It said that on November 30, the IIGEP by its letter addressed to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, communicated its decision to end its mandate by the end of March 2008.

The IIGEP embarked on its work in February 2007 which means that, within eight to nine months of the commencement of its mandate, and prior to fulfilling a full year, such a decision to quit was taken, it said.

Quoting the Commission of Inquiry on human rights violations, whose work the IIGEP was mandated to oversee, the Ministry said that in fact of the total number of 76 sessions of investigations conducted, only one member of the IIGEP was present at 37 of these sittings while only two members were present at two sittings and three members at one sitting.

“The attempt to portray the Assistants as representatives of the IIGEP at the proceedings is contrary to the Presidential Invitation which only permits their appointment ‘to provide necessary assistance’ to a Member of IIGEP,” it said.

The Ministry has also noted that the IIGEP’s public statements had been calculatedly released whenever the Human Rights Council met in Geneva. The decision communicated in November to relinquish their mandate has been given publicity once again to coincide with the Human Rights Council session even before the expiry of the IIGEP’s mandated period.

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