LNP – Assistance of international legal experts sought to claim compensation

While claiming that five committees have been appointed to work on the procedures to demand claims from the X-Press Pearl vessel, Ports and Shipping Minister Rohitha Abeygunawardane said today steps were being taken to seek assistance of the international legal experts on the matter.

The Minister told parliament that international legal procedures would also come into play in this process in addition to the domestic legal framework.

He said legal assistance of the international legal experts would be sought in a transparent manner.

The Minister said the matter with regard to the claiming of compensation from the vessel was discussed with the Justice minister and the Attorney General.

“We have identified five areas such as environment pollution, marine pollution, air pollution,lagoon pollution and damage caused to the fishing community. We have appointed five committees to study these affected areas,” he said.

He said steps would be taken to compensate those directly affected due to the incident initially and secondly the institutions such as Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), Sri Lanka Navy, air force and the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) that engaged in dousing the fire would claim compensation.

He said compensation would be sought for marine pollution as well.