US provides Sri Lanka with largest ship in fleet despite ongoing human rights concern

The United States Coast Guard has officially handed over a high endurance cutter vessel to the Sri Lankan navy, making it the largest ship in the Sri Lankan fleet, despite ongoing human rights concerns. 

The former USCGC Sherman is a 115m long ship “equipped with state of art weapons and machinery,” boasted a Sri Lankan navy website.

At a ceremony held aboard the ship, which is currently docked in Hawaii, Sri Lankan and US military officials were joined by a Buddhist monk and a cake was cut to mark the handover.

“The cutter, a gift from the people of the United States, will be the largest ship in the Sri Lankan fleet and strengthens defense cooperation between the United States and Sri Lanka,” said the US Embassy. “The new ship will join the SLNS Samudura, also a former U.S. Coast guard vessel that was gifted to Sri Lanka in 2004.”

For the last month, 110 Sri Lankan sailors have been training with the US crew in Hawaii, learning how to operate the vessel. It is set to sail-away in February 2019.

The handover of the ship comes amidst growing ties between the US and Sri Lanka, despite concern over human rights abuses committed by Sri Lankan troops.

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button