Sri Lanka to abide by ‘international law’ with rescued Iranian sailors The Sri Lanka will comply with “international law” regarding the Iranian sailors rescued after their frigate was torpedoed by an American submarine and their colleagues disembarked in a Sri Lankan port, a minister said on Saturday, amid press reports of American pressure on Colombo.
“We have taken all measures in accordance with international law,” said Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath during a conference in New Delhi.
Asked whether Colombo was under pressure from Washington not to repatriate the Iranians and to prevent them from being used for Iranian propaganda, Vijitha Herath did not respond directly.
According to a senior administration official, Sri Lanka is consulting with the International Committee of the Red Cross regarding the survivors of the sinking of the Iris Dena frigate, sunk in international waters after returning from an exercise in India. International humanitarian law applies to the survivors of the Dena, a official said, and the injured could be repatriated at their request.
On the ground in Colombo, Iranian diplomats indicated they had requested to recover the bodies of sailors killed in the American attack in order to repatriate them.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said earlier in the week that Colombo would adhere to the Hague Convention, which requires a neutral state to hold combatants of a warring state until the end of hostilities.
More than 80 dead in sinking The Iranian frigate IRIS Dena was sunk Wednesday by an American submarine off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, killing at least 84 people.
Colombo also provided refuge to a second Iranian warship, the IRIS Bushehr, and evacuated its 219 crew members a day after the Dena was torpedoed.
The ship was taken to Trincomalee, on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka, after reporting engine problems. The Sri Lankan president emphasized that this decision was made to save lives.
India, for its part, said Saturday it had authorized a third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock at the port of Kochi in southwest India for “humanitarian reasons,” also after reporting operational problems.
The three ships were part of a multinational naval review organized by India before the start of the war in the Middle East last Saturday.
“It was the humanitarian gesture to make and we were guided by this principle,” said Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishkar.
