Killing of Nimalarajan: A decade with no justice

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka
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Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) remember and honour the ultimate sacrifice Nimalarajan made for freedom of expression. Ten years ago today, Nimalarajan was shot dead in the middle of a High Security Zone in the Northern Jaffna peninsula during curfew hours.

Nimalarajan was a freelance journalist who worked for many media outlets, including the BBC Sinhala and Tamil services, the Tamil-language newspaper,Virakesari, and the Sinhala-language weeklies Haraya and Ravaya. He was killed by an armed group on 19 October 2000, in his home. In the absence of any independent media in war torn Jaffna, Nimalarajan stood out as the lone, courageous correspondent who exposed state repression, human rights violations and the undemocratic acts of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and politicians.

Nimalarajan was brutally murdered solely because he reported the truth as a professional journalist. He was killed while listening to the BBC on the radio in his family home in the evening. The killers not only shot him, but also tossed a hand grenade in the sitting room, injuring a child and his mother. The gunmen acted as if they were sure they would not be apprehended even though Nimalarajan lived in a highly secure militarized area with many check points. The Sri Lankan army never made any attempt to interview the men on duty at those checkpoints that night, who must have witnessed the killers moving in and out of the area. Indeed the family took over an hour to transport the dead and injured to the hospital, waving a lantern at every checkpoint to be searched on route – a sign of how heavily secure the location was.

Although ten years have passed since the murder of Nimalarajan, consecutive governments of Sri Lanka have not taken any significant steps to bring the culprits to justice. International pressure has also failed in bringing about any prosecutions.

Since Nimalarajan’s killing, scores more media workers have been killed and many have fled the country. It does not come as a surprise that almost all of them were journalists who exposed government misdoings and the horror of war.

JDS views the killing of Nimalarajan as one of the first killings aimed at suppressing news of the atrocities committed in the Sri Lankan conflict. The killers of Nimalarajan have enjoyed impunity. Nine years after his death, the Tamil community that he was a part of, suffered massive bloodshed as the Sri Lankan military declared victory over the Tamil Tigers.

Today, there are statements calling for reconciliation in Sri Lanka. We believe that genuine reconciliation cannot take place if victims like the Nimalarajan family are denied justice.

While the call for justice and respect for human rights in Sri Lanka has become louder than ever, with the UN Secretary General appointing a panel to advise him on Sri Lanka, it is regrettable that institutions as such as the International Monetary Fund, which are part of the UN, have granted financial assistance with no questions asked. If the global community calling for the upkeep of human rights also supports a government that has acted with impunity, we believe a decade from now Nimalarajan’s family will still be waiting for justice.

We believe Nimalarajan’s name is a symbol of the tens of thousands of Sri Lankans now denied basic justice.

Executive Committee
Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka
19 October 2010

© JDS

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Ten years of impunity for Jaffna-based journalist’s murderers

Reporters Sans Frontières
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On the 10th anniversary of Tamil journalist Mayilvaganam Nimalarajan’s murder in the northern city of Jaffna, Reporters Without Borders reiterates its hope that the Sri Lankan government will finally relaunch the police investigation into his death.

The Jaffna correspondent of the BBC’s Tamil and Sinhalese-language services and the Sri Lankan newspapers Virakesari and Ravaya, he was gunned down in his home on 19 October 2000. His killers also injured three other members of his family, including his parents.

Reconciliation in Sri Lanka will require tough government initiatives to combat impunity in high-profile cases such as Nimalarajan’s murder, one of the most shocking killings of the past decade. Now that the war is over, the police and the judicial authorities need the resources and political support that is essential in order to be able to identify and arrest those responsible.

Today, Nimalarajan’s father told Reporters Without Borders: “This has been 10 years of suffering for our family. But my son’s memory is still alive. I would like people to remember him as a courageous journalist who served his community. The government could relaunch the investigation into my son’s murder if it wanted to. It is a question of political will. We want justice to be done.”

Reporters Without Borders went to Jaffna in 2002 to investigate Nimalarajan’s murder. At that time, several suspects had been arrested but after a change of government, the police and certain judges deliberately sabotaged and then blocked the judicial proceedings, which were implicating members of the EPDP, a pro-government Tamil militia whose president is a minister in the current government.

Reporters Without Borders concluded that Nimalarajan, one of the leading Jaffna-based journalists working for the international media, was killed because of his coverage of the political violence before and during the 2000 parliamentary elections.

At least 25 journalists have been killed in Sri Lana since 2000, and three others have gone missing.

© RSF

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New Sri Lankan civil war photos threaten to overshadow Britain visit

By Dean Nelson | The Telegraph
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The photographs, which showed blood stained bodies of young men and women who had been blindfolded and had their hands tied behind their backs, were released by the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), a group which includes former supporters of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Their release was timed to coincide with the visit of Professor G.L Peiris, the Sri Lankan foreign minister, who will meet William Hague on Wednesday. A foreign office spokesman said Mr Hague will reiterate Britain's demand for a "credible and transparent investigation" into alleged war crimes. The United Nations estimates between 8,000 and 10,000 civilians died between January and May 2009 and claims the Sri Lankan army shelled a civilian 'no-fire zone'.

The GTF said these latest photographs had been passed to them by a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elaam (LTTE) intelligence official who said he'd acquired them from within the Sri Lankan Army.

A group spokesman said the pictures had not been verified but raised serious questions which only an independent investigation could address. He said some of the photographs of Sri Lankan Army officers inspecting rows of dead bodies suggested the pictures may have been taken as 'souvenirs'.

One showed a semi-naked young woman lying, apparently dead, with blood trickling from her nose. She is surrounded by dead bodies of other young men, some naked, and all blindfolded and bound.

Father S.J Emmanuel of the Global Tamil Forum, said the pictures showed a "blatant disregard for humanity" and while he did not know if they were authentic, the possibility that they might be highlighted the need for a UN war crimes investigation.

"If Government of Sri Lanka has nothing to hide, why wouldn't they at least now admit to allowing the UN to investigate?" he said.

The Sri Lankan government said the photographs had been released to discredit it during Prof Peiris’s visit to London by a pro-LTTE group which admitted it could not verify them.

The defeat of the LTTE had given Tamils new freedoms while a 'Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’ “will consider matters relating to international humanitarian law, reconciliation and governance.”

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "We have consistently called for a credible, independent and transparent investigation into allegations of violations of human rights and humanitarian law. These allegations will haunt the country for many years to come, and will hinder much needed reconciliation between the communities, unless there is an honest process of accountability for the past."

© The Telegraph

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Attack on journalists sparks outcry in Sri Lanka

International Federation of Journalists
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The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called for immediate disciplinary action to be taken after a group of police officers allegedly assaulted a group of journalists covering a student protest.

IFJ affiliates the Sri Lankan Working Journalists’ Association (SLWJA) and the Free Media Movement Sri Lanka (FMM) reported that five journalists covering the Inter University Students’ Federation demonstration on October 14 in the capital, Colombo, were attacked after they reported police used undue force to break up the protest.

They were assaulted despite having identified themselves as journalists to police after reporting that a group of 25 officers were attacking a single protester.

“The IFJ demands that Sri Lanka’s authorities investigate this gross misuse of violence against journalists who had clearly identified themselves as reporters and not protestors,” IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said.

“It is equally concerning that these students – who by all accounts were exercising their democratic right to peaceful protest – have also been targeted in such a way.”

The SLWJA and FMM will protest the attacks with other civil society groups at a rally in Lipton Circus, Colombo at noon on October 19. The protest will call on the Inspector General of Police Mahinda Balasuriya and the Secretary of Defence Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to investigate the incident and take disciplinary action against any officers found guilty of professional misconduct.

The five journalists injured were: Bingun Menaka Gamage of Lankadeepa; Sandaruwan Yatikinda of Neth FM; Pradeep Dilrukshan from the Daily Mirror; Chamila Karunaratna from Rivira and Subramaniyam Gunaratnam of Sirasa TV.

The students were protesting outside the Sri Lankan Ministry of Education to demand the release of a group of student activists from Sri Lanka’s Peradeniya University, who were imprisoned after booing the Minister of Higher Education S.B. Dissanayake on a recent campus visit. Twenty-one students arrested at the protest will face court on October 29.

While the right to protest and freedom of association are both enshrined in the Sri Lankan constitution, the SLWJA believes police who employ violent tactics do so with the blessing of state authorities.

© IFJ

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176 university students suspended; 27 arrested in Sri Lanka

Colombo Page
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Sri Lanka Human Rights Center says that 176 university students have been suspended within the past two months in Sri Lanka.

The highest number of students has been suspended in Sri Jayewardenepura University, the Human Rights Center points out.

Meanwhile 27 more students are in police custody under suspicion of violence. Of them, 21 were arrested last week as the protesting students in a demonstration broke into the University Grants Commission premises causing damage to the property.

Student unrest in most universities is attributed to the politics of the People's Liberation Front (JVP) led Inter University Students Federation (IUSF).

© Colombo Page

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Hague must insist on independent investigation into war crimes - Amnesty International

Amnesty International
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Amnesty International Monday (18) urged the Foreign Secretary William Hague to demand an independent international investigation into alleged war crime abuses in Sri Lanka when he meets his Sri Lankan counterpart, Professor GL Peiris, tomorrow.

In the months since last year’s conflict between the Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, commonly known as the Tamil Tigers, numerous allegations of war crimes have surfaced – and so far none has been properly investigated.

Eyewitness accounts of the last months of war paint a grim picture of deprivation of food, water and medical care; fear, injury and loss of life experienced by civilians trapped in the fighting.

Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, said:

“It is time for a full and independent spotlight to be shone onto the horrors of what happened during the conflict and William Hague needs to stress that when he meets the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister tomorrow.

“He must tell Professor GL Peiris that given the magnitude of the crimes that have been committed by both sides of the conflict only a full independent international investigation into the alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka will satisfy the global community.

“At present those alleged to be responsible remain at large and at little threat of being brought to justice – that cannot be allowed to continue.”

Although two bodies – the Sri Lankan Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), and the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon’s Panel of Experts – have been set up to look into the claims, Amnesty International has huge reservations about the effectiveness of both.

Kate Allen explained:

“Given the Sri Lankan Government’s track record on dealing with human rights abuses, their decision in May to establish the LLRC was suspect at best.

“Historically, Sri Lanka’s internal enquiries into human rights abuses have not been adequately empowered or resourced to ensure real accountability and there is no reason to believe that this commission will be any more effective than its predecessors.

“Hundreds of children were among the civilians killed and maimed during the final stages of the conflict in 2009

“While Ban Ki Moon’s appointment of a Panel of Experts to advise him on accountability issues in Sri Lanka is an important first step it falls short of what is actually needed.

“In order that victims’ families get the justice they deserve Amnesty International has called on the United Nations to establish an independent investigation to document the full extent of crimes allegedly committed during the conflict.”

In addition, Amnesty International continues to have concerns for the well being of tens of thousands of displaced people who remain in makeshift camps, and the more than 7,000 Tamil Tiger suspects, who are being held incommunicado in what the state refers to as “rehabilitation camps”.

© Amnesty International

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