The International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) joins the widow of Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge
in calling on Sri Lanka’s
power-holders to take immediate action to conduct a full, fair and independent investigation
into the murder of the senior newsman.
Sonali
Samarasinghe Wickrematunge, also a journalist, has publicly released a letter she
wrote to Sri Lanka’s President, Mahinda Rajapakse, on April 24 voicing her grave
concerns at the Government’s failure to investigate the January 8 murder of her
husband.
Lasantha, editor of the Sunday Leader, was killed by gunmen who
ambushed his car and shot him several times in central Colombo. Days earlier, he had penned a moving
editorial predicting his murder and holding the Sri Lankan Government
responsible.
In her letter, Sonali calls
on the President to initiate and accept an international inquiry, noting that countries
such the United States, India and those
represented in the European Union would likely be willing to provide experts
and detectives to assist the inquiry.
“The
IFJ stands with Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge in appealing to the highest
levels of the Government in Sri
Lanka to authorise an independent commission of
inquiry into Lasantha’s murder in accordance with international standards of
justice,” IFJ General Secretary Aidan White
said. “Four months after Lasantha’s murder, a high-level independent investigation
is needed to redress the failure of Sri Lanka’s authorities to act.”
Sonali’s
letter states her belief that the Government has sought to cover up the facts
of her husband’s murder. Everyone except the police seems to know who killed him,
she wrote.
She stressed that not one attack
on the media in Sri Lanka
has been seriously investigated. No one has even been charged. These incidents
include a long series of attacks and threats against Lasantha. Sonali noted
that Rajapaksa himself had threatened her husband by phone.
“Under your presidency,
violence against journalists has become commonplace,” she wrote. “Your
government has been forced publicly to accept in parliament that nine
journalists have been murdered in Sri Lanka during the past two years
of your presidency. International agencies put this figure at 16. Dozens of
others have disappeared, suffered physical assault, been arbitrarily detained
without trial or been forced to flee overseas for fear of their lives. Numerous
other media institutions have been violently attacked in commando-style raids
and, in some cases, their employees slaughtered in cold blood.
“… Never in the history of Sri Lanka has a
government so ruthlessly suppressed media freedom and political dissent.”
The publication of the letter
follows the posthumous award of UNESCO’s 2009 World Press Freedom Prize to Lasantha.
At a World Press Freedom Day event on May 3, Lasantha’s niece read out a
statement from Sonali in which she applauded the courage of Sri Lanka’s
journalism community, and the reality of the extreme risks they continue to confront.
“…
Apart from those who have lost their lives, we need to remember also those
journalists who languish in Sri Lankan prisons with no charge or with only the
flimsiest and most childish of contrived charges pressed against them. In other
cases, false charges are levelled so as to harass dissenting journalists. Dozens
of journalists-including myself-have been forced to flee Sri Lanka. I
have no doubt that should I return to Sri Lanka, my remaining days would
be few indeed.”
For the full statement, see: http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/3159/2009/04/5-095557-1.htm
For the letter to President Rajapaksa, see: http://www.unbowedandunafraid.com/
For further
information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific
on +612 9333 0919
The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 120 countries