Shooting incident: Govt denies Navy involvement

The attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been drawn to reports in the Indian media alleging that two fishermen from Nagapattinam on the south Indian coast were killed while fishing off Point Calimere on 11th July 2008, due to firing by the Sri Lanka Navy.

The preliminary findings in this case are that there were no Naval units operating on the Sri Lanka side of the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) in the area off Point Calimere on 11th July, the Ministry said.

However, there was an incident that same night at 21.10 hours at a completely different location, namely approximately 8 NM East of Point Pedro when two Sri Lanka Navy fast attack craft deployed on a routine patrol detected on their radar, a boat moving in a suspicious manner at high speed of around 34 knots, The night vision cameras of the Navy vessels further discerned the suspicious craft as having the configuration of an LTTE low profile boat.

When the suspect boat failed to respond to warnings to halt, the Naval craft were constrained to open fire.

It was not possible for the Navy vessels to assess the outcome of the action taken by them and accordingly the possibility of the suspect boat having continued on its northerly course cannot be ruled out.

It is clear that the incident took place well within Sri Lankan territorial waters and around the sensitive area of Point Pedro, from where the LTTE Sea Tiger wing has frequently engaged in terrorist activities.

The following reasons substantiate the premise that there was no action by the Sri Lanka Navy in the vicinity off Point Calimere on 11th July 2008.

a) Sri Lanka Naval vessels operate only on the Sri Lankan side of the IMBL.

b) The Area Commands at all times control the operations of the Naval units deployed under them.

The standing instructions issued to the Commanding Officers of all Naval craft include the need to treat crew of detected/apprehended fishing vessels in a humanitarian manner, c) Some of the media reports concerning the alleged incident off Point Calimere refer to over 20 bullet injuries on the body of one of the deceased. Such injuries can occur only through firing at point blank range from small arms.

In the incident off Point Pedro, the two Naval craft had to engage from long range the suspicious boat due to its travelling at a high speed.