SRI LANKA: Newspaper editor murdered
BACKGROUND: According to PEN Canada's information, Lasantha Wickramatunga, editor of the Sunday Leader, was shot by two gunmen on motorcycles as he drove to work on the morning of January 8, 2009. He was critically injured, and died from his wounds after three hours of surgery. A few days before the shooting, Wickramatunga wrote a remarkable editorial in which he predicted his murder and reflected on the difficult choices facing Sri Lanka's independent media. The editorial, which was published posthumously on January 11, 2008, observed that the "free media serve as a mirror in which the public can see itself sans mascara and styling gel. From us you learn the state of your nation, and especially its management by the people you elected to give your children a better future. Sometimes the image you see in that mirror is not a pleasant one." Wickramatunga was well known for his unsparing criticism of President Rajpapakse and his administration, especially for claiming that the government had exploited Sri Lanka's long standing civil war to keep itself in power. Under Wickramatunga, the Sunday Leader published lengthy exposés of government corruption even though the editor had received many death threats, was detained on several occasions and had been repeatedly sued, unsuccessfully, for libel. At the time of his murder, Wickramatunga was fighting a defamation lawsuit brought by Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the President's brother. In his posthumous editorial, Wickramatunga writes: "People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it is a matter of time before I am bumped off. Of course I know that: it is inevitable. But if we do not speak out now, there will be no one left to speak for those who cannot, whether they be ethnic minorities, the disadvantaged or the persecuted."
Read:
Lasantha Wickramatunga's last editorial:
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20090111/editorial-.htm
An overview on Lasantha Wickramatunga's career:
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20090111/spotlight-1.htm
Tributes:
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20090111/REVIEW.HTM
Appeal letter:
January 15, 2009
His Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapaksa Presidential Secretariat Colombo 1 Sri Lanka Fax: + 94 11 2446657
Your Excellency:
As a member of PEN Canada, the Canadian centre of International PEN, the writers' organization with 145 centres in more than 100 countries worldwide, I am writing to urge you to conduct a full and timely investigation into the killing of Lasantha Wickramatunga.
I am encouraged by Minister Anura Priyadarsahana Yapa's promise that the government will do everything in its power to find the killers and bring them to justice. However, I remain concerned that Sri Lanka's journalists continue to work in an atmosphere of intimidation, violence and impunity, a situation that has not been helped by the government's repeated assertions that unsympathetic reporters are rebel sympathisers and enemies of the state.
My PEN colleagues and I are disturbed by reports that V. Jasikaran and J. S. Tissainayagam, Tamil journalists arrested last March, were tortured during their lengthy detention without charge. I am also concerned that when charges were finally laid against Mr. Tissainayagam, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, that he became the first journalist in nearly 30 years to be prosecuted according to legislation that was originally adopted as an extraordinary and "temporary" legal measure.
We urge you to fulfill your duties to guarantee the right to freedom of expression, in accordance Article 19 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Sri Lanka is a signatory.
Sincerely,
[your name and signature]
Please fax or email copies of your appeal to the following:
His Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapaksa
Presidential Secretariat
Colombo 1
Sri Lanka
Fax: + 94 11 2446657
Salutation: Your Excellency
Hon. Amarasiri Dodangoda
Minister of Justice and Law Reforms
Superior Courts Complex,
Colombo 12
Sri Lanka
Fax: + 94 11 2445447
Salutation: Dear Minister
H. M. G. S. Palihakkara
Ambassador
Permanent Mission of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to the United Nations
#630, 3rd Avenue (20th Floor)
New York 10017
United States of America
mail@slmission.com
Fax + 1 (212) 986-1838
His Excellency the High Commissioner Daya Perera, President’s Counsel
High Commission for the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
333 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 1204
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 1C1, Canada
Fax: (613) 238-8448
