Security for Athas: US Senate intervenes

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has urged President Mahinda Rajapaksa to “fully and immediately” restore the security detail and police guard provided for The Sunday Times Defence Correspondent and Consultant Editor Iqbal Athas and to “fully and credibly investigate” the threats and intimidation against Mr. Athas and his newspaper.

In the letter dated September 4, 2007, Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden, Jr expressed concern about the personal security of Mr. Athas, a respected journalist whose reporting appears to have exposed him to serious and disturbing threats. The letter came less than a week after US government asked Sri Lanka to take measures to ensure the safety of Mr. Athas and his family.

US State Department Acting Spokesman Tom Casey last week said that the government was concerned about the removal of the security of Mr. Athas.

The Defence Correspondent’s security was withdrawn after his weekly page Situation Report in The Sunday Times of August 12 exposed details of how the Government of Ukraine was conducting a probe into the sale of MiG-27 fighter jets from that country to Sri Lanka. The Government acknowledged that matters revealed in his exposure merited its own investigation. Prime Minister, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake moved in Parliament to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee for this purpose.

The text of the letter from Senator Biden to the President is as follows:“I would like to express my concern about the personal safety of Mr. Iqbal Athas, a respected journalist whose reporting appears to have exposed him to serious disturbing threats.

“Mr. Athas has been threatened before, and in 1994 he received the Committee to Protect Journalists International Press Freedom Award for his courage in pursuing stories in the face of personal risk, but the current threats appear to be of a higher order. The withdrawal of Mr. Athas’ security detail two weeks ago has fuelled international concern, since the decision came after his newspaper, The Sunday Times, and the Sinhala-language newspaper Lankadeepa published stories about irregularities surrounding a 2006 deal to purchase MiG-27 fighter jets from Ukraine.

“The deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka is of great concern to all of your country’s friends. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are guilty of many acts of terrorism over the course of the past quarter-century, and the pace of their crimes has escalated since the failure of the ceasefire accord. Abuses by government security forces have also accelerated, as outlined in the State Department’s annual human rights reports.

“I respectfully urge that the Government of Sri Lanka ensure that its forces, and all persons or groups informally affiliated with the government, respect the human rights of all citizens. Given the importance of a free, unintimidated press in safeguarding human rights in any country, I respectfully urge that the security detail and the police guard provided for Athas be fully and immediately restored, and that the threats and intimidation tactics against Athas and his newspapers be fully and credibly investigated.

“Thank you for your attention to this very serious situation”. The letter has been copied to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the US, Bernard Goonetilleke.