The Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPS) has issued a statement expressing its strong condemnation of the illegal sinking of the Iranian vessel IRIS Dena by the intervention of the United States Navy in Sri Lanka’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
The statement, signed by the General Secretary of the CPS, Dr. G. Weerasinghe, further reads as follows.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Ship (IRIS) Dena was sunk by a US submarine within 82 kilometers off the coast of Sri Lanka near Galle. Reports say that 87 bodies of dead sailors have been recovered by two vessels of the Sri Lanka Navy.
The IRIS Dena had taken part in joint exercises with the Indian Navy at Visakhapatnam in February and had been returning home. It was not participating in hostilities or posing an active threat to the USA. The US submarine which fired the torpedo that sank the ship was not under imminent threat, so was acting illegally within Sri Lankan waters. Callously, it made no attempt to rescue the sailors following the sinking. Furthermore, the US-Israeli aggression on Iran is illegal, both in international and US law. The attack on the IRIS Dena thus clearly violates both the law and Sri Lankan sovereignty.
This is of no consequence to the imperialist Trump regime in the USA. US Secretary (Minister) of Defense Pete Hegseth, who openly boasted that the US had sunk the IRIS Dena, had previously said that the USA would not follow and “stupid rules of engagement” in the course of this war – in other words, would ignore international law and the Geneva Convention.
The response of the NPP Government to this open violation of our EEZ has been lukewarm. Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath had been apologetic about the Sri Lanka Navy responding to the IRIS Dena’s distress signals, saying it was obligated to do so under the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue.
The question arises of the complicity of the Government of India in this heinous act. Reports have emerged that the Indian authorities ordered the IRIS Dena to leave Indian waters prematurely, and even that they tipped off the USA as to the whereabouts of the Iranian vessel.
Reports have also emerged that the IRIS Dena had requested permission to stay within Sri Lankan territorial waters and waited for 14 hours, before this request was turned down by President Anura Kumar Dissanayake.
The CPSL calls upon the Sri Lanka Government to stop kowtowing to the Trump regime and to condemn this illegal sinking and the brazen US violation of international law, Sri Lanka sovereignty, and human decency. It also calls upon the Government to appoint a commission of inquiry to look into the circumstances of the deliberate sinking of the IRIS Dena in violation of international law, particularly to ascertain the extent to which the Governments of India and Sri Lanka were complicit in this illegal act.
Furthermore, the CPSL urges the government to revive the Indian Ocean Peace Zone concept which was proposed by Sri Lanka and adopted at the United Nations in 1971. Sri Lanka must work resolutely in international diplomatic fora to prevent the expansion of war into the Indian Ocean region.
