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Nimalarajan murder
World reporters want justice
From Neville de Silva in London
The Paris-based international journalists organisation, Reporters Without Borders, has written an open letter to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe urging him to speed up the inquiries into the murder of Jaffna journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan who was shot dead two years ago.

While thanking the Wickremesinghe government for relaunching the police investigation into the murder after coming to power, the organisation makes several observations and recommendations in its efforts to seek justice for Mr. Nimalarajan's death.

These observations and recommendations follow a fact-finding mission sent to Sri Lanka in June. Initially, Reporters Without Borders was extremely critical of the Chandrika Kumaratunga administration which it feels has been lackadaisical at best, in investigating the murder.

"The day after his murder, the country's highest authority, the President, promised an investigation to establish the motives for the killing and identify the perpetrators. However, Reporters Without Borders and the Damocles Network, organisations committed to fight impunity for those who kill journalists, are obliged to point out that neither the perpetrators nor the instigators have so far been formally identified, brought to trial or punished".

"Reporters Without Borders has on several occasions denounced the previous government for a lack of will in ensuring the progress of the investigations. As a result of our fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka, we were able to confirm that from October 2000 to January 2002, the work of the police was blocked by the authorities in Colombo and Jaffna, and that several suspects including Napoleon (until recently an EPDP paramilitary leader who has reportedly fled the country), were seen moving freely in Jaffna during that period".

The organisation says that "testimonies gathered during the mission enables us to state with confidence that Mr. Nimalarajan received threats from the EPDP and the security forces which worked together closely at the time".

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