“In the wake of my death I know that you will make all the sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry” … Lasantha Wickrematunge in his postumous editorial in the Sunday Leader appearing therein the day after he was murdered.
(May 3, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Dutu Gemunu the first Sinhala Buddhist king who defeated the Tamil king Elara ruled 2300 years ago with no menace from the media as have to be faced by President Rajapaksa and his brothers who constitute in reality the Sri Lankan State. Any menace to the unfettered enjoyment of triumphalism over the defeat of the Tamil people and their aspirations should indeed be dealt with in the most brutal manner. If the media voicing the aspirations of the Tamil people even in the most peaceful manner are any impediment they should be brought on track as per the instructions to the army commander controlling the north handpicked by a Rajapaksa sibling Gotabhaya the secretary for defence , for Hathurasinghe’s brutal record in dealings with the Tamils in the past. The top level army personnel functioning in the north have been specially handpicked for their “unblemished” record in the repressive acts against the Tamils including their role in the periodic Pogroms let alone the war crimes committed in May 2009. They have now absolved themselves of any war crime.
In the instant case, we refer to the thirty seventh attack on a leading Tamil newspaper, Uthayan being published in the north. We may not agree with all what the newspaper has had to say but we admire their courage to speak out on what they have had to say on the abuses of human rights and most recently on the arbitrary taking over of lands in the Tamil areas for use by the army. Uthayan is one of the numerous newspapers having been attacked in the past. Free media and free speech are an anathema to Mahinda Rajapaksa who fantacises himself to be the descendant of king Dutu Gemunu along with his sycophants.
It would be recalled that in early 2009 the editor of the outspoken newspaper Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickrematunge was attacked by armed men and killed on his way to work. No investigation of any substance has ever been done. In fact just before his murder, Mr. Wickrematunga was prophetic when he stated: “….In all these cases ( referring to the attacks on himself), I have reason to believe the attacks were inspired by the government. When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me……”
Besides Wickrematunge, an outspoken Sinhalese, there are numerous other newspapers and their editors that suffered the wrath of the government paying the price for dissent and the expression of free speech. Taraki was a Tamil who was murdered followed by the killings of many other Tamil journalists. There was Tissanayagam imprisoned under the Terrorism Act . There is then the case of the talented Sinhalese cartoonist Prageeth Eknalligoda who involuntarily disappeared believed to be the handiwork of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. One of the most disgraceful and cynical acts of injustice by the current Chief Justice Mohan Peiris while being attorney general was when he declared at the forum of the UNHCR that Eknalligoda was alive in a foreign country only to soon after give evidence in a Sri Lankan court of law that only God knew of his whereabouts. The question is, why should an officer of the standing of an attorney general of a country have to blatantly lie at a forum like the UN with impunity only to be rewarded to be made the chief justice.
There was then the attack on Mr. Shauketaly, who holds dual Sri Lankan-British citizenship, prompting strong reactions from London. Almost 25 dissentient journalists have lost their lives or have disappeared within the decade.
Having been harassed and intimidated by Gotabhaya for having written a piece based on facts the previous editor of the Sunday Leader Frederica Jansz had to leave the country voluntarily for fear of her life and that of her children for good. What is more, Gotabhaya got the newspaper to apologise for the “libelous” statements purported to have been made against him, a modus operandus to cover up his misdemeanors and to present himself as a victim of maliciously slander misleading ignorant and gullible sections of the Sinhala polity.
With the elections to the provincial council in the horizon as promised by Rajapaksa and anticipated, there were justifiable fears that the para military sections the Tamil cabinet minister Douglas Devananda a corrupt criminal corrupt looking after the affairs of the north appointed to represent the Tamils by the Rajapaksas but actually to spite the Tamil people, had indeed been responsible for the burning of the Uthayan office. It is in the interests both the government and Devananda for their mutual survival in the north to ensure that the leading credible Tamil political party, the Tamil National Alliance though with many issues yet to be resolved amongst their constituents, are kept away while keeping the impending perceived threat of the LTTE still alive for their survival. The renewal of the violent attack on the Uthayan newspaper was the first of the recent steps to make it tow the government line, keep silent on their mis-deeds of the Sri Lankan army of occupation in the north or pay the supreme price.
Mahinda Rajapaksa is an adept at giving assurances that he is certain he will not honour. He can go on as long as the international community get tired of being polite to pretend to believe promises. President Rajapaksa has as usual undertaken to have the attack on Uthayan investigated despite the fact that attack that was done at his brother’s instance consequent to his instructions to the army in Jaffna that the media in the north be brought on track. We learn that that the Uthayan office was burnt by Major Pathirana of the Gajaba regiment on the instructions of the Jaffna army commander Mahinda Hathurusinghe. We are also made to believe that prior to setting fire, the Uthyayan office staff were summoned to be told as to how they should function.
Mohan Samaranayake, a spokesman for the Sri Lankan President had also stated that the attack was being investigated. “The government is committed to press freedom and freedom of expression,” he said. It is indeed strangely amusing that General Hathurusinghe the Head of civil administration of the miltarised Jaffna in his triumphalist temerity justifying the attack and giving an insight into the reality and the prospects of reconciliation should tell the government newspaper Dinamina that the Uthayan news paper in Jaffna was transmitting false propaganda to the international community with the intention of disrupting the mutual harmony built between the security forces and the people in Jaffna while the news paper had joined hands with the TNA to become a trumpet of the pro LTTE Tamil Diaspora, in spreading racism. Patronising, further, he had said that although the TNA call themselves the representatives of the Tamil community, they had not done anything for the people so far. He had said that the people in Jaffna admire the Govt relief program in the North and are considering the Sinhalese and the security forces as their friends. (Sri Lanka Mirror 27 April 2013). We wonder how he got this impression.
This is a clear instance of the army on behalf the government telling the Tamil people how they should think and how they should speak thus summarising the government concept of the extent of free speech that the Tamils are allowed. The question is whether the army commander in Jaffna has been given the license to determine the extent of free speech that the Tamil speaking are entitled to enjoy.
( The writer is the editor of the Eelam Nation, an online journal)
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