A Sri Lankan court on Wednesday passed an order to hand over the remains of the 84 Iranian sailors who were killed when Iranian naval vessel IRIS Dena was torpedoed by an American submarine. The court's order comes at a time when there were reports of diplomatic pressure on Sri Lanka from America to not to repatriate the bodies of the Iranian sailors. The bodies, which are at Karapitiya teaching hospital, will be sent to Tehran by Sri Lanka.
The Galle chief magistrate court ruled that the bodies of 84 identified crew members from the IRIS Dena, torpedoed 40 nautical miles off Sri Lanka’s coast on March 4, be handed over to Iranian embassy officials for repatriation. The 32 survivors were rescued by the Sri Lankan navy. Out of the 87 the crew members killed, 84 bodies have been identified.
The decision to hand over the remains have come days after there were reports of diplomatic pressure by America on Sri Lanka, as suggested by a leaked cable dated March 6. The cable was reportedly written by US Charge d’Affaires Jayne Howell.
The cable sent from the US Embassy in Colombo urged Sri Lankan authorities not to repatriate the surviving crew of the Iranian vessel IRIS Dena and also the 208 crew members who were evacuated from IRIS Bushehr, which was allowed to dock at the port of Trincomalee.
According to reports, the leaked cable was with an underlying goal saying, “minimise Iranian attempts to use the detainees for propaganda.” It is also said that Jayne Howell briefed the Israeli ambassador to India and Sri Lanka that there were no plans to repatriate the crew to Iran, even when the Israeli envoy asked about engagement with the crew to encourage defection.
The leaked cable, US diplomatic pressure and the Galle court order seems to be a strong message from the Sri Lankans to the world. The ruling underscores Sri Lanka’s diplomatic stance, its role as a neutral state and also to make it apparent that it will not respond to any pressure arising out of the conflict in West Asia. Sri Lanka has chosen to take its decision under international maritime and humanitarian law talks beyond diplomacy, according to the political circles in Sri Lanka.
