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year on, RSF wants justice for Sivaram Said RSF's Asia-Pacific spokesman Vincent Brossel, on the first anniversary of Sivaram's death, "The arrest of a suspect in June 2005 raised hopes that the case would soon be solved, but the investigators have done virtually nothing since his arrest." The three press freedom organizations went on to insist in their joint complaint that "the current serious crisis in Sri Lanka - the result of unacceptable terrorism - in no way justifies the impunity prevailing in the murders of journalists and human rights activists," and this before saying that they were "calling on President Mahinda Rajapaksa to step up efforts in the investigation into Sivaram's murder as the state's credibility in preventing the murders of journalists, especially Tamil journalists, is at stake." In the wake of his death, one Arumugam Sri Skandarajan, described as "a former member of a Tamil armed group," was said by RSF spokesman Brossel to have been "arrested as a suspect on June 13, 2005, near Colombo," at which time he "was found in possession of the SIM card from Sivaram's mobile phone." The police also said at the time that they "had found a vehicle that may have been used in his abduction," except that "the witnesses of the abduction later said the detained suspect was not one of the kidnappers and that the car was not the one they had used." After his arrest, the police were said to have "virtually abandoned" the investigation, "and this although Sivaram's relatives and friends said that the instigators and perpetrators could be linked to Tamil paramilitary groups, as Sivaram supported the Tamil nationalists and was outspoken in his criticism of abuses committed by the security forces and paramilitaries." During the past year, said Mr. Brossel, "Tamil-language journalists and media workers have been killed, received death threats, physical and psychological threats, been arrested and detained," among them Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) journalist Relangi Selvarajah and her husband were shot dead on August 12, 2005, in Bambalapitiya, as well as Subramaniyam Sugirdharajan, popularly known as SSR, a part-time provincial journalist working for the Tamil daily, Sudaroli, was shot dead in Trincomalee on January 24, 2006. Among other Tamil-language journalists killed in the past year were, according to the joint statement, D. Selvarathnam, a security guard at the printing press for Sudaroli, who was killed in a grenade attack on August 29, 2005 and K. Navarathnam, a newspaper deliveryman of Yal Thinakkural, killed by unknown assailants in Jaffna on December 22, 2005. All these killings, in the words of the joint statement, "have contributed to a growing fear amongst the Tamil media community, which is why, as a result of the year-long lack of progress by authorities into their investigation, "the IFJ, RSF and FMM are calling for the Government to ensure those responsible for these murders are brought to justice and to ensure the safety of all journalists working in Sri Lanka," with the three organizations concluding that "as long as journalists are forced to work in fear there can be no press freedom." |
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