SL Navy says it seized ship 'Vanangaman'

(June 04, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka's navy said on Thursday it has seized a foreign-owned ship loaded with supplies for war-affected civilians, saying it had entered its territorial waters illegally.

The vessel 'Captain Ali' is carrying approximately 884 metric tons of food, medicine, and other essential humanitarian relief items destined for the 330,000 Tamil civilians in the Vanni area of Northern Sri Lanka displaced by the war. The “Mercy Mission to Vanni” began the 1st leg of its journey from the Port of Ipswich, UK on 20 April 2009.

"We have seized the vessel and we are bringing it ashore now," Navy spokesman Captain D. K. Dassanayake said. The crew did not resist when the navy boarded the vessel some 140 kilometres (87 miles) west of Sri Lanka, he said.

The captain of the ship Mr. Kristjan Guðmundsson, from Iceland, was an SLMM Naval monitor for one year (2003-2004) in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka.
-Sri Lanka Guardian