By Ifham Nizam
Sri Lanka could file cases in Singapore, as the owners of the ill-fated ship X-Press Pearl is based there or file action in the United Kingdom as the relevant insurance company is in London, says Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ).CEJ Chairman, Attorney-at-Law Ravindranath Dabare told The Sunday Island that to claimcompensation for the massive damage caused to Sri Lanka, all above jurisdictions are possible.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe has instructed Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe to take steps to file a case against the relevant shipping company before the International Court of Arbitration in Singapore to get compensation for the damages caused by the destruction of the MV X-Press Pearl container shipjust outside the Colombo harbour.
The Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl container ship carrying a hazardous chemical cargo caught fire on 20 May 2021 while at anchorage 9.5 nm off Colombo Harbour due to a chemical leak in a container and burned for 13 days before the fire was put out on 2nd June. The ship along with its hazardous cargo sank afterwards.
Though many environmentalists strongly believe that as much as USD 10 billion should be claimed by the Sri Lankan government from the Singapore flagged ship X-Press Pearl, to date there are no committees appointed after the Attorney General Department instructed authorities to do so.
Senior Environmental lawyer, Dr. Jagath Gunawardena, responding to queries expressed concern saying that to date, no case has yet been filed to obtain compensation from the company that owns the ill-fated vessel that caused the massive environmental destruction.
He stressed that to get compensation for the damage caused to the marine biodiversity of Sri Lanka by the sinking of that ship, filing a lawsuit is mandatory, and the last day to file a lawsuit related to that incident is May 20, 2023.