Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today asked external affairs minister SM Krishna to prevail upon Sri Lanka to allow the unloading of a ship carrying relief material sent by overseas Tamil diaspora for displaced people in the island nation.
The vessel, the MV Captain Ali, which set sail from Britain on April 20, is currently anchored outside Chennai port after it was turned away by the Lankan Navy on June 9, after it was detained for several days. According to the Lankan Navy, the ship was turned away on the ground that it violated internationally accepted formalities
followed by merchant ships seeking to enter Lankan waters, and that it did not conform to the International Ships Port Facility Security code.
In a letter to Krishna, Karunanidhi said the ship carrying humanitarian aid collected by Tamils in Europe for displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka was turned away by the island nation's Navy. It is carrying about 884 tonnes of food, medicine and other relief material. "I consider it appropriate and timely as well as critical for the government of India to intervene at this juncture and persuade the government of Sri Lanka to allow unloading of the relief materials sent through the vessel," the Tamil Nadu chief minister said.
Karunanidhi said he was deputing state minister for Higher Education, K Ponmudi, to meet Krishna and take up the matter with him, adding that the Sri Lankan government might be requested to consider unloading and distributing the relief material under the supervision of international agencies like the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"I am confident that this intervention on purely humanitarian ground and based on several international precedents will go a long way in helping the internally
displaced Tamils now housed in makeshift camps," Karunanidhi said in a letter released to the media in Chennai.
