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Expert calls for Indian accountability in maritime boundary violations

Published

1 year ago

2024/11/1

Thilina Walpola

A Sri Lankan navy vessel near an Indian fishing trawler

India allowing its fishermen to violate Lankan waters is a clear violation of international law

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Neither the Indian Central Government nor the Tamil Nadu state government could escape responsibility for Indian fishermen violating a maritime boundary agreement with Sri Lanka, Senior Lecturer M.A.M. Hakeem from the Department of Public & International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Colombo said in a recent televised interview.

Hakeem highlighted that approximately 5,000 fishing trawlers registered with Tamil Nadu used illegal bottom trawling method, with half of them encroaching into Sri Lankan territorial waters three days a week. “On beaches in northern Sri Lanka, one can see many Indian vessels operating alarmingly close to our shores. This issue goes beyond just the Sri Lankan fishing industry,” he said.

Hakeem said that there was an agreement between Sri Lanka and India about the maritime boundary and this agreement is breached when thousands of Indian vessels operate in our territorial waters.

In the first few decades, following independence, Sri Lankan and Indian fishermen had operated without boundary restrictions, he said. However, agreements signed in 1974 and 1976 had demarcated sea boundaries, Hakeem said. The 1974 Agreement was regarding historic waters between Sri Lanka and India in the Palk Strait and Palk Bay. This agreement also formally confirmed Sri Lanka’s sovereignty over the Kachchativu Island.

An Agreement between Sri Lanka and India on the Maritime Boundary between the two countries in the Gulf of Mannar and the Bay of Bengal and related matters was signed in 1976, he said.

The Agreement says, “Each party shall have sovereign rights and exclusive jurisdiction over the Continental Shelf and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as well as over their resources, whether living or non-living, falling on its side of the aforesaid boundary … each Party shall respect rights of navigation through its territorial sea and exclusive economic zone in accordance with its laws and regulations and the rules of international law.”

The 1974 and 1976 Agreements, taken together with the Exchange of Letters, igned between Kewal Singh, the then Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, and W.T. Jayasinghe, then Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka, has cleared doubts. Paragraph 1 of the Exchange of Letters very clearly rules out any fishing rights for the fishermen of the two States in the waters of the other state which reads as follows; “fishing vessels and fishermen of India shall not engage in fishing in the historic waters, the territorial sea and the EEZ of Sri Lanka, nor shall the fishing vessels and fishermen of Sri Lanka engage in fishing in the historic waters, the territorial sea and the EEZ of India, without the express permission of Sri Lanka or India, as the case may be.”

While Indians lost access to Sri Lankan waters, local fishermen lost access to Pedro Bank, and Wadge Bank, the continental shelves off Cape Comorin at the southern tip of India, which had been profitable commercial fishing grounds since the 1920s for both Indian and Sri Lankan boats.

Hakeem said, “We have an agreement, and it is the responsibility of the Indian government to enforce it. Why does India take no action when its fishermen violate an international agreement? Neither the Indian Central Government nor the Tamil Nadu state government can evade responsibility for this.” He pointed out that the principle, ‘Pacta sunt servanda’, adictatesd that treaties were binding on the parties that entered them. “India has given Sri Lanka a commitment and is responsible for preventing its fishermen from entering Sri Lankan waters,” he added.

Hakeem highlighted a second issue—the ecological damage caused by Indian fishermen poaching in Sri Lankan waters and using illegal methods like bottom trawling. So far this year, the Sri Lankan navy has seized over 45 such trawlers. Reports suggest that bottom trawling has depleted fishing resources off South India, making this practice unsustainable. “If poaching Indian trawlers aren’t stopped, the seas off Northern Sri Lanka could become barren within the next five to ten years,” he warned.

Hakeem urged that the issue also needed to be viewed from a socio-economic perspective, as many Sri Lankan fishermen rely on the northern sea’s resources. “Our fishermen are not receiving equal protection under both local and international law. We have ratified the agreement with India as domestic law, and we must uphold the fundamental rights of our fishermen. Our government bears responsibility for this,” he said.

He further said that Indian fishermen are extracting resources that rightfully belong to Sri Lanka, though the economic losses to Sri Lanka remain uncalculated. “All we know is that they are colossal,” he said. Additionally, Hakeem highlighted the national security threat posed by these poaching activities, as Indian fishermen currently enter and exit Sri Lankan waters at will.

The Law Faculty Senior Lecturer also said that the India-Sri Lanka Joint Working Group (JWG) on Fisheries met earlier this week, during which the Indian side pressed for the swift release of detained Indian fishermen and their boats. In a press release, the Indian High Commission expressed concern over increasing detentions and fines and emphasised the need to uphold established understandings regarding fishing issues.

“Tamil Nadu fishermen still believe they have the right to fish in our waters. However, any such claim must be recognised under international law. The agreements signed in the 1970s revoked these rights,” he said.

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Govt. assures UN of readiness to introduce ‘vetting process’ for troops on overseas missions

Published

20 hours ago

2026/04/28

Sahan Weerasooriya

Thuyakontha

Defence Secretary (retd.) Air Marshal Sampath Thuyakontha has discussed with UN officials in New York the deployment of Sri Lankan troops in Haiti, under a new UN authorised force, tasked with tackling heavily armed gangs operating in the violence ravaged country.

The UN is in the process of building up a force comprising approximately 5,500 officers and men for deployment in Haiti.

The Sri Lankan delegation included Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN, former Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya. The UN has tagged the deployment Gang Suppression Force (GSF).

According to the Defence Ministry, Sri Lanka negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding the GSF. Although Sri Lanka has contributed to UN-led missions, the proposed deployment differed due to the nature of the operation, sources told The Island.

The delegation has assured that all personnel, assigned for UN missions, including the proposed GSF deployment in Haiti, would be subjected to a comprehensive screening process, in line with UN standards. War-winning Sri Lanka has declared, in New York, that the country was in the process of developing, what the Defence Ministry here called, National Human Rights Vetting Mechanism in consultation with the UN Resident Coordinator in Colombo.

The US has backed the deployment of Sri Lankan troops under UN command. Various interested parties, over the years, protested against the deployment of Sri Lankan troops on the basis of unsubstantiated war crimes allegations.

Thuyakontha has assured that troops would maintain highest standards of discipline during overseas missions. Sri Lanka brought the war here to a successful conclusion in May 2009 against predictions of contrary outcome by so-called experts.

The US and Panama proposed the GSF to replace a Kenya-led multinational force undermined by a lack of funding. Its strength hovered around 1,000, rather than the desired 2,500. The U.N. Security Council authorised the 5,500 strong force on September 30, 2025, with the new power to arrest gang members.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

News

Lawyers cannot be denied right to represent a suspect – Udaya

Published

20 hours ago

2026/04/28

Sahan Weerasooriya

Sallay

Sallay’s case:

Attorney-at-law Udaya Gammanpila yesterday (27) said a lawyer could not be deprived of his or her right to represent a client.

The former Minister and leader of Pivuthuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) Gammanpila said so addressing the media at the party headoffice at Pita Kotte. Gammanpila was responding to recent media reports that he had been prohibited from representing retired State Intelligence Service (SIS) Chief Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay. Therefore, there was absolutely no basis for claims that he had been barred from meeting the retired officer, now named the third suspect in the Easter Sunday case, the ex-parliamentarian said.

Gammanpila emphasised that in terms of the Constitution a suspect’s right to be represented by a lawyer was recognised as a fundamental right. The Criminal procedure Code, too, guaranteed the suspect’s right to consult a lawyer, the ex-lawmaker said, pointing out that the Judicial Organisation Act underscored the same.

Declaring that the retired officer’s wife had named him as Sallay’s lawyer in a letter addressed to Director, CID, Gammanpila said that the courts, police and the Attorney General’s Department couldn’t under any circumstances interfere with his right to represent Sallay.

The CID arrested Sallay on 25 February and detained him under Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for a period of 90 days. Sallay has filed a writ petition before the Court of Appeal through his lawyers, challenging his arrest and detention by the CID under the PTA.

Former Minister Gammanpila said that even if a Magistrate had the power to prohibit a lawyer from representing a particular suspect, such a course of action couldn’t be resorted to without giving the lawyer concern an opportunity to explain his/her actions.

Declaring that in case of misconduct on the part of a lawyer only the Supreme Court could take disciplinary action, the PHU leader said, adding that he sought a certified copy of the proceedings of the day when a section of the media reported the Magistrate’s declaration of the purported ban. Gammapila said that he was really keen to know what happened during the proceedings on that day.

Sallay served as Director, Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) from 2012 to 2016 and received the appointment as head of SIS following the 2019 presidential election. Sallay held that appointment till early October, 2024.

Gammanpila said that he couldn’t be barred for speaking to the media after meeting Sallay, currently held under PTA, or for authoring a book on the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage. According to Gammanpila as long as the suspect had no objections to his lawyer sharing some information with the media it shouldn’t be an issue for Additional Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

News

Police seek Interpol help to probe monks nabbed with narcotics at BIA

Published

20 hours ago

2026/04/28

Sahan Weerasooriya

Police investigating the thwarted a bid made by 22 Buddhist monks to smuggle in narcotics, with a street value of Rs 660 mn via BIA, from Thailand, over the weekend, believe the monks who organised the clandestine operation had sent groups of monks to Thailand before.

Sources said that they had brought in narcotics on earlier occasions.

Police have seized the mobile phones used by the suspects and sought INTERPOL assistance.

Earlier, the Negombo Magistrate’s Court remanded those 22 monks, arrested in connection with the largest drug bust in the airport’s history.

The monks were produced before the Negombo Magistrate’s Court and ordered to be held in custody until 02 May, as investigations continue into the alleged smuggling operation and any wider networks involved.

However, other sources said that more than 110 kilogrammes of suspected Kush and Hashish, with an estimated street value exceeding Rs 1.1 billion, had been found, concealed in false-bottoms of their suitcases. The bags reportedly packed with school supplies and sweets are said to have contained over five kilogrammes of narcotics per individual.

The arrests followed a raid by the Police Narcotics Bureau on Saturday night. Investigators have also recovered mobile phone evidence indicating that the group had travelled to Bangkok on 22 April using airline tickets allegedly given by a sponsor. Authorities allege that the suspects were photographed in civilian clothing, while overseas, engaging in activities deemed suspicious.

Police say this marks the first reported instance of a large-scale narcotics operation via the airport involving Buddhist monks. The suspects are young monks from different parts of the country.

By Norman Palihawadana