Office bearers of Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance questioned

( Colombo, 28th Feb)
President, deputy president and secretary of the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance were asked to report to Colombo Crime Division (CCD) today (28th Feb 2009).� All of then were questioned on their relations with Sudaroli editor N. Vidyatharan and short statements were recorded.

Sudaroli editor N. Vidyatharan was forcibly taken away by a group led be uniformed policemen around 9.45 am yesterday and later found in police custody of CCD. He� is also being held and questioned by CCD HQ at Dematagoda, Colombo.

Meanwhile Media minister Lashman Yapa stated that Mr. N. Vidyatharan is being questioned regarding the phone calls he received/made during the LTTE air raid on Colombo on 20th this month. According to the minister he will be released if proven innocence other wise he will be charged.

Arrests of Journalists and the value of dissent

by Shanie (TC)

[Illustration of the struggle of Ken Saro-Wiwa-by AHSart]

I have raised the questions, daughter
which you and your kids must ponder.
I feel guilty I did not sooner
in my lifetime urge them stronger.
And now, ere I answers provide
I may in cold blood be buried.
Have I your futures compromised?

Ken Saro-Wiwa was a Nigerian writer and activist, a leader of the minority Ogoni people, who was tried in a sham trial by the then military regime and hanged in 1995. He wrote this poignant poem for Zina, his daughter, shortly before his execution. This poem is included in an excellent series of booklets under the title �The Value of Dissent� put out by the Civil Rights Movement of Sri Lanka between 1991 and 2000. The poem has relevance today to an alarming growth of a culture of intolerance in our country. It is not only the state authorities, but also various armed groups and individuals act with impunity by resorting to violence against those who dissent and who disagree with them. This week�s arrest of the Sudar Oli editor Vidyatharan was the latest in the harassment and intimidation of journalists and dissidents. Vidyatharan may or may not be guilty of the charges being made against him, but the manner of his arrest raises several questions and doubts. It is similar to the arrest of journalist Tissanayagam, his incarceration for several months, and the �charges� made against him in a trial that is still going on.

The CRM�s publication also reproduces an extract from a 2nd Century BC Pali text �Milinda Prasna� a conversation between King Milinda and the Buddhist monk Nagasena:

The King said, “Bhante Nagasena, will you converse with me?”

“Sire, if you will converse with me under the fashion of the wise, I will. But if you converse with me as Kings converse, I will not.”

“And how, Bhante Nagasena, do the wise converse?”

“Sire, when the wise converse, whether they become entangled in their opponent�s arguments or extricate themselves, or whether they or their opponents are shown to be in error, and whether their own superiority or that of their opponents is proved, none of these things can make them angry.”

“And how, Bhante, do kings converse?”

“Sire, when Kings converse they put forward a proposition, and if any should oppose it they order his punishment, saying, �Punish this fellow!�”

“Bhante, you are right. I will converse as the wise do, not as kings do. Let your reverence converse with me in all confidence. Let your reverence converse as unrestrainedly as if with a Bhikku, a novice, a lay disciple or a keeper of the monastery grounds. Have no fear!”

In an introduction to this series, the CRM stated that the publication originated in the context of the appalling violence that had disfigured Sri Lanka, accompanied by a terrifying rise of intolerance. The CRM identified as a priority the need to promote understanding of not only the right to dissent but also the intrinsic value of dissent. �Threats to the free exchange of ideas certainly do not come from government alone. They can and do come from other sources too; from various social and political groups, from communal and individual attitudes, even from majority public opinion. Indeed, the suppression of opposing views by the state is often with the support of society at large; governments in many ways reflect society�s prejudices. However, intolerance from whatever source is dangerous to society, and must be identified and opposed.�

The CRM�s warnings are even truer today with growing threats, intimidation and even killing of dissidents. Despite President Rajapakse�s attempts at damage control, these petty �potentates� continue to act with impudence and impunity. These �fascist tendencies�, to borrow Michael Roberts� phrase, must be exposed and opposed, for the sake of the future of democratic rule in our country. As fellow Island columnist Tisaranee Gunasekera has stated, the rule of law must not be allowed to be replaced by the law of the rulers.

The helplessness of the civilians

The current conventional phase of the war rumbles along nearing its inevitable end. Tens of thousands of non-combatants however continue to lie trapped in the conflict zone. Apologists for the two sides, not caring a damn for the helplessness of these civilians, engage in shameless rhetoric. One set of apologists deny the brutality of the LTTE and deny that these trapped people are being used as human shields. The other set of apologists seek to justify the harsh and uncaring attitude towards these civilians. When they argue that those remaining in the LTTE controlled territory are LTTE sympathisers and deserve what they are being subjected to, they are in effect denying the claim that LTTE is using them as human shields.

The situation is compounded by the de facto censorship imposed on the media in the country. The ordinary people are deprived of independent information about the actual ground situation for the civilians. All this is sadly polarising our people as never before. The Tamil diaspora is fed an exaggerated story of the otherwise genuine suffering of the civilians and also a pro-LTTE slant to the real ground situation in the Vanni. This in turn is relayed via the internet to the middle class Tamils in the country and which then filters down to the ordinary Tamil people. Sinhala supremacist propaganda is readily made available to middle classes and the masses via both the electronic and print media. Naturally the result is a major polarisation between the Sinhala people and the minorities on how they perceive the current political position. This polarisation was more than evident in the way the people voted at the two Provincial Council elections held recently. Radhakrishnan of the Upcountry People�s Front stated that his Party which enjoyed substantial support in Nuwara Eliya-Maskeliya and which contested with the UPFA failed to win a single seat because the plantation workers, subject to harassment under the guise of security measures, voted against the Government. That was the ground situation for the minorities. War rhetoric and controlled war news however worked to the advantage of the Government among the Sinhala voters. The intimidation and de facto censorship may prove effective in the short term but in the longer term, history has repeatedly shown that it is counter-productive.

The Final War?

One vocal Sri Lankan diplomat has claimed that the current is the final war � the war to end all wars against LTTE terrorism in our country. He dismisses the fear expressed by many that once the present conventional phase of the war lends and LTTE loses all territory it controls, LTTE will revert to their former guerrilla war strategy. Another diplomat in Vinayagamoorthy Muraltharan, alias Colonel Karuna, now an Honourable Member of Parliament, disagrees. (We refer to this gentleman as a diplomat because he was officially issued a diplomatic passport by the government and allowed to travel under his incarnation as Kokila Gunawardena.) This gentleman predicts that the war will continue for twelve to eighteen months even after the LTTE loses all its territory.

Who is right will probably depend on whether the LTTE supremo is captured, killed or goes underground. Being a largely monolithic outfit, the LTTE will probably disintegrate if he is no longer there to provide leadership. But as Karuna predicts, the second tier of leadership may carry on an underground guerrilla war for some months. But if Pirapaharan himself goes underground, then we will have to brace ourselves for a prolonged and uncertain guerrilla war.

The success or otherwise of such a guerrilla war will depend largely on how the Government of Sri Lanka handles the aspirations of the minorities. If it comes up with political package that ensures that the Tamils, Muslims and other minorities feel that they are equal partners with the Sinhala people and are being treated with justice and dignity, then there is no potential for the LTTE or any other militant group to exist and enjoy popular support, a sine qua non for the success of a militant underground movement.

TID grill FMM chief

By Norman Palihawadena
(IS)
Convener of the Free Media Movement Sunanda Deshapriya questioned by the Terrorist Investigation Division yesterday yesterday rejected a statement made by one Prakash arrested by Police at the Katunayake International Airport last week.

Prakash, a one-time Batticaloa based journalist, had arrived at the Airport to catch a flight to Singapore when he was arrested on suspicion and had said that he was a journalist and had shown an international journalist identity card. He had claimed that he was a good friend of Sunanda Deshapriya. However the latter when questioned by the Police denied any knowledge of the suspect arrested.

Further inquiries had revealed that Prakash was suspected to have cheated several people in East Sri Lanka to part with large sums of money on the promise of migration to Western countries and had attempted to escape to Singapore when arrested.

Subsequent investigations had revealed that the international journalist identity card produced by the suspect was a forgery.

The suspect is now being held in custody under detention orders for further questioning by the TID.

Court extends enjoining order ( on Sunday Leader)

By Ananda Weerasuriya.
The enjoining order against the Leader Publications Ltd was extended up to April 30 for the final time by the Mount Lavinia District Judge Priyantha Silva who ordered the Leader Publications to file objections on that day.

The enjoining order was issued against the publication of any news item defamatory of Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. The case filed against Leader Publications by the Defence Secretary claiming Rs.10 million as damages sequel to a news item published in the Sunday Leader Newspaper of November 09, 2008 allegedly defamatory of the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

Additional District Judge Mohamed Mackey postponed the trial for June 23 and 24 with the concurrence of the counsels of both parties.

Attorney-at-law Sanath Wijewardena appeared for Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa while Attorney Reshan Gamage looked after the interests of Leader Publications.

SLPI deplores manner of editor�s arrest

The Sri Lanka Press Institute lodged a strong protest yesterday at the manner in which Sudar Oli Editor N. Vidyatharan was arrested on Thursday morning at a funeral parlour in Mount Lavinia — being dragged out by some men in police uniform and others in civvies and bundled into a white van and driven away.

�If the editor was needed by police for purposes of an investigation, he or indeed any other citizen, should have been told why he was required, shown the Magistrate�s warrant permitting the arrest and taken away without the rough housing� that was evident The methods used were, to say the least deplorable,� a SLPI statement said.

We do not know whether Mr. Vidyatharan was taken away for good reason or bad and without that knowledge will not comment on that matter. But the fact that the police spokesman first told the media that he had been abducted by a group of gunmen and driven off in a white van and the story later changed to say that he was arrested by the Colombo Crimes Bureau, implies either an attempted cover-up in the first instance or that the left hand of the police does not know what the right hand is doing.

Eye witnesses at the funeral parlour, where the editor was standing by the publisher who was to later perform the obsequies at a relative�s funeral, said that three men in police uniform tried to take the editor away and when this was resisted by Vidyatharan and others present, three others in civilian dress came out and dragged Mr. Vidyatharan along the floor, bundled him into a white van and then drove him away.

SLPI strongly asserts that the manner of the arrest and the use of a white van for this purpose are most deplorable.

Controversy Over Arrest of Tamil Newspaper Editor

by Yohan Perera and Senaka de Silva
(DM 27th )

Controversy surrounded the arrest of Sudar Oli Editor N. Vidyadaran in Mount Lavinia last morning after police initially said, he was abducted by an unknown gang which had come in a white van. But later they said he had been arrested by the police and was being questioned over the recent LTTE air attack in Colombo.

There was confusion on the fate of the senior editor with even the police initially saying they did not know anything about his whereabouts and were treating the complaint as an abduction and were investigating the incident.As confusion reigned on the journalist�s fate the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) and a government minister cleared the air saying the Editor was arrested in connection with the LTTE air attack on Colombo last week.

[E. Saravanapavan, managing director of Tamil language newspaper Sudaroli, gestures as he describes the arrest of his editor Vidyadaran at a funereal parlor in Colombo-AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena-via Yahoo! News]

Police Spokesman Ranjith Gunasekera, who had also earlier told the media that Vidyadaran was abducted by an unidentified group in a white van, also confirmed that he was actually arrested by the Colombo Crimes Division.
Mr. Vidyadaran was taken away while he was attending a family funeral at the Mahinda Florists in Mount Lavinia last morning.

Minister Anura Priyadarashna Yapa who commented on the matter said the editor was arrested over some phone calls he had received during last week�s air attacks. The Minister said he would be released if found innocent but would be legally charged if there was evidence pointing to his involvement.

Sudar Oli Publishers Mass Media Syndicate Ltd Managing Director E.Saravanapavan who was with Mr. Vidyadaran at the time of the arrest said he was at the funeral parlour when the six men approached the editor and dragged him into the van. They had come in a white van bearing number HX 0640, according to an eye witness.

He said three out of the six men were in civvies and others in police uniform. They had said they were taking him to the Dehiwala police station when Mr. Saravanapavan inquired as to where he was being taken.

Mr. Saravanapavan had then inquired from the Dehiwala, Wellawatte and Mount Lavinia police but none of these police stations knew about the arrest according to him.

�I also tried to pull him away when they were dragging him on the ground and I am sure he must have suffered some injuries,� he said.

While speaking to journalists Mr. Saravanapavan received a call on his mobile from Mr. Vidyadaran saying he was alright. However he had not said where he was.

The call followed President Mahinda Rajapaksa being informed of the incident by some Ministers with whom the Mass Media Syndicate Ltd Managing Director talked to after the incident.

Deputy Tourism Minister Faizer Mustpha who is also a member of the Ministerial Sub Committee on Media who rushed to the scene inquired from the IGP and the police Spokesman on the matter. According to the Minister they were not aware of the arrest at that time.

Mr. Saravanapavan said a group of men who identified them selves as officers from the intelligence unit had searched the Sudar Oli office at Grandpass on Wednesday and had asked for all the names and contact numbers of the journalists attached to the paper. However he had refused to provide them with these details.

The Sudar Oli Editor has been working for Udayan newspaper in Jaffna for more than 20 years and has been a native of Trincomalee. He has come to Colombo five year ago.

Sri Lanka editor held, accused aiding rebel strike

By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer Ravi Nessman, Associated Press Writer

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka � Sri Lankan police arrested the editor of a Tamil-language newspaper in the middle of a funeral Thursday, accusing him of aiding a rebel air attack on the capital last week.

The arrest of Nadesapillai Vithyatharan came as the government faced growing criticism for a recent spate of attacks on journalists viewed as critical of the offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels in the north.

Last month, a prominent newspaper editor critical of the war was killed by gunmen, a private TV station was attacked by assailants armed with guns and grenades and another editor was stabbed.

Opposition officials and media activists have accused the government of a role in the attacks, an allegation the government denies.

Vithyatharan, editor of the reputedly pro-rebel Sudar Oli newspaper, was attending a funeral near Colombo Thursday when three uniformed police officers drove up in a van, pulled him from a crowd of mourners standing near the coffin, and drove away, said E. Saravanapavan, managing director of the newspaper.

“We were trying to push him inside and they were trying to drag him the other way,” he said.

Lakshman Hulugalle, a defense spokesman, said Vithyatharan was being held in connection with the rebels’ kamikaze attack on Colombo last Friday, but that it was too soon to know if he would be charged. He defended the conditions of the arrest.

“There was nothing harsh in the arrest because he’s a wanted person,” he said.

Saravanapavan said the arrest came a day after police came to the newspaper’s offices and demanded everyone’s name and address. They did not explain the reason for the demand, he said.

Reporters Without Borders demanded Vithyatharan’s immediate release.

“What is this respected Tamil editor accused of? Outspoken coverage of the situation in Sri Lanka, including the fate of its Tamil population,” the group said in a statement.

Meanwhile, army troops and the Tamil Tiger separatists fought fierce battles in Puthukkudiyiruppu, the last rebel-held town, the military said.

The military has driven the rebels out of much of the de facto state they controlled across the north and boxed them into a tiny strip of land along the northeastern coast. If Puthukkudiyiruppu falls, the rebels will be confined to a few villages and jungle areas, along with tens of thousands of civilians still trapped in the war zone.

In a speech Thursday, President Mahinda Rajapaksa accused the rebels of increasing their forcible recruitment of children as they grow more desperate in the face of the military onslaught.

The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for an independent state for minority Tamils after decades of marginalization by governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

SRI LANKA Tamil newspaper editor arrested in Colombo – RSF

Reporters Without Borders is extremely shocked by today�s arrest of N. Vithyatharan, the editor of Sudar Oli, a Colombo‐based Tamil daily that is part of the Uthayan press group. He was forcibly arrested while attending the funeral in Colombo of a relative of the group�s chairman. The media minister told the organisation that he was being �treated well� by the police.

�Carried out without a warrant, this arrest was a violation of the rule of law,� Reporters Without Borders said. �The police must release Vithyatharan without delay. What is this respected Tamil editor accused of? Outspoken coverage of the situation in Sri Lanka, including the fate of its Tamil population.�

Three uniformed police officers and three men in plain clothes arrested Vithyatharan at the funeral of a relative of Uthayan press group chairman M. Saravanapavan. The police hit people who tried to intervene to prevent the arrest.

�Until we have seen Vithyatharan safe and sound, we will continue to regard this as an abduction,� Saravanapavan told Reporters Without Borders.

Media minister Laxman Yapa told Reporters Without Borders by telephone that Vithyatharan was being held by the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) for the purposes of questioning. �He is currently being interrogated and his relatives will be able to see him this evening,� Yapa said. �I can assure you that he is all right. And the press will be informed tomorrow.�

Reporters Without Borders asked the minister to guarantee Vithyatharan�s safety.

The CCD is conducting an investigation under the emergency regulations into two reports published in Sudar Oli on 6 and 11 February. Vithyatharan was already summoned for questioning by CCD police officer Aura Senanayake on 13 February.

Senior members of the Uthayan press group have meanwhile received phone calls threatening them with the same fate if they do not leave the country.

Uthayan and Sudar Oli have repeatedly been the targets of violence. Six of the group�s employees have been killed since 2005 and its offices in both Jaffna and Colombo have been attacked several times.

Prominent Tamil Editor abducted in Colombo, later claimed ‘arrested’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 26 February 2009, 05:08 GMT]

Mr. Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, editor of the Uthayan and Sudaroli newspapers

Armed persons and men in police uniform who arrived in three white vans Thursday morning abducted Nadesapillai Vithyatharan, 58, the prominent editor of Jaffna-based Uthayan daily and Colombo-based Chudaroli, eyewitnesses told TamilNet. The abduction comes six days after Mr. Vithyatharan was grilled by the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Department (TID). The TID had questioned him Sunday for six hours on news and views that appeared in his papers on Sri Lanka Army (SLA) attacks on civilians in Vanni and about his interactions with the officials of the Tigers in the past. Police spokesman Gunasekara, who first said that the editor was abducted by unidentified men, hours later claimed that he had been arrested.

The ‘abduction’ has taken place around 9:45 a.m. at Mahinda Parlour in Galkissa (Mount Lavinia) on Galle Road while Mr. Vithyatharan was attending a funeral of a close relative.

Three of the armed men were in Police uniform and two in civil. “When relations tried to prevent him from being taken away the armed men intimidated them, pushed them and took Vithyatharan away,” according to a note from the Chief Editor of Uthayan. Eyewitnesses said one of the white van was bearing registration number HX-0640.

The Deputy Chief of US Embassy in Colombo, James R. Moore, who visited Jaffna two weeks ago, had a meeting with the editorial staff of Uthayan, which is functioning under trying conditions for more than two years.

Mr. Vithyatharan is the Editor-in-Chief of Colombo based Chudaroli and editor of Uthayan, published in Jaffna. Both the papers have faced threats and attacks in recent years.

In May 2006, armed paramilitary gunmen who entered the office of the Jaffna daily Uthayan, opened fire killing two staff, including the daily’s marketing manager, and causing injuries to two staffers.

Abducted Editor found in Police custody

Daily Mirror website reported ( at 12.20 pm)� that��� that Sudar Oli editor N. Vidyatharan was not abducted by an unknown group but was in fact taken in for questioning by police quoting the Police Spokesperson.

The same news paper reported that Mr. Vidyatharan was abducted quoting the same police spokesperson two hours before.

Mr. Saravanaphavan managing editor of the Uthayan group of news papers says that police did not identify themselves or didn�t explain the reasons for his arrest at the time of his abduction. The group that took Mr. Vidyatharan away by force included 3 men in civilian cloths. According to law it is mandatory for the arresting agency to identify themselves and provide a receipt to the immediate family when some one is arrested.

Police spokesperson has not reveled the location of Mr. Vidyatharan is being held or the police division that took him to custody.