It is urgent and important that the world realizes what is happening in Sri Lanka before it is too late, history will not forgive us if we do not act now, says Sonali Wickrematunga. "Sri Lankan government is perhaps the only one on this planet that persists in bombing its own civilian citizenry," "In Sri Lanka, it has become the norm for journalists to be killed in the pursuit of their profession," "The free Sri Lanka in which I was born no longer exists." These are few expressions on the grim situation in Sri Lanka from a statement made by Sonali Wickrematunga, wife of the late editor Lasantha that was read out at the world press freedom day.
The statement was read out by her niece at the final World Press Freedom Day award ceremony, where murdered Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge was posthumously given the World Press Freedom Prize 2009, Sonali left Sri Lanka in the aftermath of her journalist husband's murder and lives in exile with her children.
In her statement she said "the free Sri Lanka in which I was born no longer exists. Our country has entered a Dark Age characterized by tyranny and state-sponsored terror, where the government publicly, cynically and unapologetically equates democratic dissent to treason. The sinister white van in which the state abducts its perceived enemies including journalists, many of them never to be seen again, has become a symbol of untold dread. Yet, we need to remember that violence against journalists is only the tip of the iceberg. Tens of thousands of ordinary Sri Lankan civilians-men, women, children, and the aged-have been herded into concentration camps where they are held against their will, the only crime they did is being an ethnic minority living in an area infested by the Liberation Tigers. There they languish in the most horrible of conditions, trapped behind barbed-wire fences and beneath the radar of a world which, perhaps rightly, is more concerned with the arguably greater tragedies unfolding in places such as Darfur."
She calls the on going war in Sri Lanka as a racist war. She adds," I would not go so far as to use the word genocide, but it would not surprise me to see it used in future international legal action against the government. At any rate, the government itself has plastered the countryside with enormous placards lauding the military with the slogan, in Sinhala, the language of the Sinhalese majority to which I too, belong, stating: "Soldiers, our race salutes you!" Not "the people", not "the country", but the race. And all these placards exhibit the stated provenance of the Ministry of Defence or other government institutions. Interestingly, none of these hoardings are in Tamil, the language of the people the government claims it is seeking to liberate."
She made her point clear in the UNESCO ceremony that it is urgent and important that the world realizes what is happening in Sri Lanka before it is too late.
Sonali laments "sadly, even those who should see best are blind to the plight of the innocents caught in the crossfire as state terrorism seeks to counter the LTTE's terrorism. It frustrates me that even people who should know better do not seem to. A few days after Lasantha's murder an international Journal opined that "For all those who argue that there's no military solution for terrorism, we have two words: Sri Lanka." It is a pity that even journalists often fail to see the distinction between terror perpetrated by terrorists and terror perpetrated by governments. This Journal might just as well have said to all those who argue that there's no military solution for terrorism, they have just one word: terrorism. For that is the solution the government of Sri Lanka has chosen: terrorism against civilians, terrorism against journalists, terrorism against dissidents of all kinds."
It angers me, as it did Lasantha, that we have learned so little from history. I beseech you and anyone who will listen not to allow Sri Lanka's government, under the cover of a war against terror, to engage in acts of terror or crimes against humanity. Soon it will be too late, and history will not forgive us if we do not act now.
Talking about the plight of journalist in Sri Lanka she said, "in Sri Lanka, it has become the norm for journalists to be killed in the pursuit of their profession." No less than 16 dissident media professionals have been assassinated-all of them in commando-style attacks-since President Mahinda Rajapakse took office in November 2005. That is about one in every two months. Presses and television stations have been destroyed in these raids.
Apart from those who have lost their lives, she said there are journalists who languish in Sri Lankan prisons with no charge or with only the flimsiest and most childish of contrived charges pressed against them. In other cases, false charges are levelled so as to harass dissenting journalists.
Dozens of journalists have been forced to flee Sri Lanka, she has no doubt that if she returns to Sri Lanka, her remaining days would be few. Other journalists have been threatened personally by the president or his brothers, three of whom he has elevated to high public office. Indeed, on 11 January 2006 Lasantha too, was personally threatened by President Rajapaksa, she said.
President Rajapakse within hours of Lasantha's assassination promised a full inquiry and promised to bring the perpetrators to justice. Of course, no such thing has happened. Almost four months have passed, and all we have seen is a cover up. There has been no meaningful investigation, no trace of the vehicles used in the assassination, no call for information on the murder weapon, and even the cause of death has been deliberately smudged so as to derail a future investigation.
But by recognizing his life and work as UNESCO did, she said "you send an important message to tyrants everywhere, that killing the messenger is not a solution. If by nothing else, it is by gestures such as the one you have made here today that the point is made ever more strongly that the human spirit cannot be subdued by violence-no, not even by murder. And so it is that even in death Lasantha's name draws more hits on Google than the prime minister of Sri Lanka."
In the end note she reminded the last words of her husband to the readers of the newspaper he edited.
"We have espoused unpopular causes, stood up for those too feeble to stand up for themselves", he wrote. "We have made sure that whatever the propaganda of the day, you were allowed to hear a contrary view. For this I-and my family-have now paid the price that I have long known I will one day have to pay. I am-and have always been-ready for that. I have done nothing to prevent this outcome: no security, no precautions. I want my murderer to know that I am not a coward like he is, hiding behind human shields while condemning thousands of innocents to death. What am I among so many? It has long been written that my life would be taken, and by whom. All that remains to be written is when."
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