Zimbabwe Style Dictatorship in Sri Lanka
Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations (AFTA), the peak body representing the Tamil Australians of Sri Lankan descent in Australia, condemns in the strongest possible terms the daylight assassination of the "Sunday Leader" newspaper editor, Lasantha Wickramatunga yesterday in broad daylight on a street in Colombo and the attack on a TV station earlier in the week aimed at silencing independent voices in Sri Lanka. Lasantha Wickramatunga was fatally shot Thursday morning as he drove to work. Earlier, on Tuesday a dozen heavily-armed men with grenades, badly damaged the studios of the Maharaja Television/Broadcasting Network (MTV/MBC), a Tamil owned establishment and the largest private TV telecaster in the country, in Pannipitiya, near Colombo, after charges that the network's reporting of the war between the government and Tamil insurgents was not "patriotic" enough.
Lasantha Wickramatunga is the latest in a long line of Sri Lankan journalists who have been murdered or silenced over the past two decades. Many of the victims have not met their fate in the country's war zone, because for much of the past 20 years independent journalists have been banned from reporting from the conflict areas. Instead they have been targeted in Colombo and the so called liberated area of Jaffna - and nearly all of them had records of exposing official corruption or what they said was inept handling of the war against the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Campaigning groups such as Reporters Without Borders say that the targeting of journalists has worsened in recent years in Sri Lanka. "Sri Lanka has lost one of its more talented, courageous and iconoclastic journalists,"
further.
Amnesty International last year said that at least 10 media workers were killed over a two-year period after Rajapaksa came into power. It said that many more were abducted, detained or had disappeared. Last month
Human Rights Watch called on the government to free prominent Tamil journalist, JS Tissainayagam. His magazine accused the government of "shamefully using anti-terror laws to silence peaceful critics". AFTA believes, after President Rajapaksa came into power, he has tried to govern Sri Lanka with an iron grip like the way President Robert Mugabe tries to run Zimbabwe. President Rajapaksa appointed his brothers and relatives to key defence and other positions, and trying to silence any descent to his administration by terror and intimidation.
President Rajapaks took over the responsibility of the media ministry only on January 1, 2009 under the guise of a cabinet reshuffle. Within days these two incidents happening with impunity clearly foreshadows only more difficult times are ahead for media freedom in Sri Lanka. AFTA appeals to all democratic forces of the world not only to condemn these terror tactics of the Sri Lankan regime and impose sanctions on this regime like the way many have done against the Mugabe regime. AFTA has no doubts, if Mugabe deserves punishment from the International community for crimes against humanity Rajapaksa also deserves equally or even more.
AFTA appeals to the Australian government, especially the Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, to state clearly that the business with Rajapaksa government is not going to be, business as usual, the same way he has told the Mugabe regime. AFTA also appeals to the Australian government to impose travel ban on Sri Lankan government officials wanting to visit Australia in the same way it has done to the officials and their children of the Mugabe regime, to discourage the Sri Lankan regime becoming a fully fledged dictatorial regime.
Media inquiries:
Sydney: Dr. Victor Rajakulendran 0402 484 209
Melbourne: Mr. S. Mahendrarajah 0401 993 712
Canberra: Dr. Raga Ragavan 0402 387 920
http://www.tamilsydney.com/
