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Home > Struggle for Tamil Eelam > Sri Lanka Accused at United Nations > UN Commission on Human Rights 2002
UN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
58th SESSIONS: MARCH/APRIL 2002
- Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Mr. Abid Hussain, submitted in accordance with Commission resolution 2001/47 - United Nations Economic and Social Council E/CN.4/2002/75/Add.2, 25 February 2002 under Item 11 (c) of the provisional agenda Civil and Political Rights, including the Question of Freedom of Expression
Introduction
1. This addendum contains information received from 15 December 2000 to 14 December 2001....
2. The Special Rapporteur would like to emphasize that the countries discussed in the respective sections in no way reflect the total extent of the problem worldwide, as indeed violations of the right to freedom of opinion and expression take place in almost every country, in spite of the emergence of an increasing number of national institutions which are working for the promotion and protection of human rights...
Sri Lanka - paragraphs 221 to 225, page 61
Communications sent
221. On 28 September 2001, the Special Rapporteur transmitted a communication concerning the following cases:
(a) Subramaniam Thiruchelvan, a correspondent for the governmental press group Lakehouse Newspapers and the Tamil newspaper Valampuri, was arrested in Point Pedro, Jaffna district, after an anonymous petition was sent accusing him of collecting money for the LTTE. The journalist was arrested under Emergency Regulations 18 and 19, which allow the authorities to detain without charge for six months, and beaten with a pipe several times by policemen. A hearing was to take place on 16 March 2001 but was postponed. On 30 March 2001, Mr. Thiruchelvam was released on the order of the Attorney General for lack of evidence
(b) A.S.M Fasmi, a reporter for the Tamil-language newspaper Thinakkural, was reportedly detained, interrogated and threatened repeatedly with death since he reported on the alleged rape of two Tamil women detained by local security forces in April 2001. On 21 March 2001, the same day as Mr. Fasmi’s report on the rape charges appeared in Thinakkural, intelligence officers from the 21-5 army brigade in Mannar summoned the journalist for interrogation and accused him of plotting to bribe members of the armed forces and thereby tarnish their image. A.S.M. Fasmi was transferred to the crime branch of the Mannar police
(c) Upendra Chitral Alwis, a reporter for a television news programme, was allegedly manhandled and verbally abused by officers belonging to a special police unit while covering a murder case on 12 June 2001 in Colombo city;
(d) Aiyathurai Nadesan, a veteran journalist in Batticaloa, Vice-President of the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance and recipent of the Best Journalist of 2000 prize awarded by the Sri Lanka Editors’ Guild, was summoned on 17 July 2001 to the office of Colonel Manawaduge, the commander of the 23-3 battalion in Batticaloa, threatened and accused of writing solely anti-Government and anti-military news and articles; a bomb exploded on 3 April 2000 at the home of Nellai G. Nadesan, a Batticaloa-based columnist for Virakesari, the country’s leading Tamil-language newspaper. Those responsible for the incident were linked to pro-Government Tamil paramilitaries. Mr. Nadesan had received a telephone death threat after his paper ran an article in March 2000 about atrocities committed by a member of the People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), an armed Tamil group that supports the Government’s battle against separatists. Mr. Nadesan had not written the article, although he had regularly written about the activities of PLOTE and other pro-Government Tamil groups in Batticaloa;
(e) S.M. Gopalratnam, editor of Thinakathir, the only Tamil daily in eastern Sri Lanka, and sub-editor K. Rushankan were summoned by Colonel Manawaduge who accused them of supporting the LTTE;
(f) On 23 May 2001 the Colombo offices of the Sinhala-language weekly Ravaya and the Tamil-language weekly Athavan were bombed by unidentified persons. The incident, which caused no material damage or injuries, was apparently a “warning” linked to the newspapers’ critical reporting, specifically in connection with impeachment proceedings against Supreme Court Chief Justice Sarath Silva. According to police sources, the smoke bomb used by the attackers is reportedly only available to Sri Lankan security forces. Previously, Ravaya had reportedly been critical of the Government and had played an important role in the impending impeachment motion against the Chief Justice;
(g) On 23 February 2001 by the State-run Daily News and Dinamina accused two opposition parties, the United National Party (UNP) and the People’s Liberation Front (JVP), of conspiring to overthrow the Government. The article in Dinamina also mentioned the names of Saman Wagarachchi, editor of Peramuna, and Sujeewa Gamage, editor of Peraliya. Moreover, on 28 February 2001, the Peraliya office in Colombo was set on fire by unidentified persons. Mr. Gamage and other members of the staff had received several threats prior to this incident, and afterwards Mr. Wagarachchi received threats over the telephone;
(h) Sri Lankan authorities allegedly intimidated Victor Ivan, a journalist honoured for his work by the University of Colombo and editor-in-chief of Ravaya. After five criminal defamation cases were filed against him, Mr. Ivan filed a number of petitions to have the charges dismissed and was fighting a complex legal action over a Ravaya article alleging the rape of a woman by a magistrate. All of the criminal defamation charges were brought under either section 479 or section 480 of the Sri Lankan Penal Code;
(h) the Special Rapporteur raised concern at the lack of progress in the case involving Iqbal Athas, defence columnist for The Sunday Times, and his alleged harassment by two air force officers who have been indicted for criminal intimidation, criminal trespass and unlawful entry into the journalist’s home. These acts were allegedly in retaliation for a series of exposés Mr. Athas had written for The Sunday Times about corruption in the military and irregularities in the air force’s weapons procurement practices. On 12 February 1998, five armed men entered Mr. Athas’ home and threatened him and his 7-year-old daughter at gunpoint. Two Sri Lankan air force officers, squadron leaders H.M. Rukman Herath and D.S. Prasanna Kannangara, identified by Mr. Athas and his wife as being among the five intruders, were indicted on criminal charges but were released on bail. The case has been postponed seven times. Since the attack, the administration has provided security for Mr. Athas and his family;
(i) on 17 June 2001, several State-owned media outlets, the Tamil-language daily Thinakaran, the Sinhala-language daily Divaina and the English-language Daily News, published a press release accusing four journalists of “maintaining secret connections with the LTTE”. These journalists are P. Seevagan, who reports for the BBC’s Tamil service and heads the Tamil Media Alliance; Roy Denish, defence correspondent for The Sunday Leader; Saman Wagaarachchi, editor of the Leader’s Sinhala-language counterpart, Irida Peramuna; and D. Sivaram (alias “Taraki”), an outspoken freelance columnist. All these journalists were reportedly listed in the online magazine, The Global Spy Magazine, as LTTE spies or sympathisers. The front page article in Thinakaran alleged that Mr. Wagaarachchi had been involved in the murder of two men who had been accused of treason by the LTTE. Under Sri Lankan law, the LTTE is a proscribed organization and membership is a criminal offence. On 18 June 2001, two men attempted to enter Mr. Sivaram’s Colombo home;
(j) a group of journalists, members of the Free Media Movement (FMM), were threatened by an armed group allegedly members of the Presidential Security Division (PSD);
(k) on 26 March 2001, the Director of Information issued an order preventing the television channel TNL from showing the layout of the new presidential palace during a programme on this. The action taken by the Government, on the grounds of national security, had aimed at preventing a debate from taking place. Although the Supreme Court had previously directed the Director of Information to provide guidelines for the maintenance of regulations on censorship of war-related information and news, he has not yet complied with this directive.
222. On 1 October 2001, the Special Rapporteur transmitted a communication concerning the following murders. On 2 November 1999, Atputharajah Nadarajah, chief editor of the Tamil-language tabloid weekly Thinamurasu and an MP for the Jaffna district and representative of the Ealam People’s Democratic Party, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Colombo. His driver was also killed. Mr. Nadarajah had in the past year veered his paper towards support of the nationalistic Tamil Tigers and away from the majority Sinhalese parties. Another case concerns the killing, on 7 September 1999, of Rohana Kumara, editor of the pro-UNP (United National Party) opposition tabloid, Satana Battle, by unidentified assailants in a suburb of Colombo.
Mr. Kumara was known for his exposés of government corruption. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur expressed his concern about the murder on 31 December 1999 of Anthony Mariyadasan, a journalist working for the State-run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, by a group of armed people in Vavuniya. Witnesses suggested that the gunmen were LTTE guerillas. Finally, the Special Rapporteur raised concern about the murder on 19 October 2000 of Mailvaganam Nimalaranjan, correspondent of the Tamil daily Virakesari and regular contributor to the BBC and several other international media, by unidentified attackers.
223. The Special Rapporteur transmitted a communication on 10 October 2001 regarding the case of Elmo Fernando, Colombo correspondent for the BBC, who was reportedly set upon during a demonstration organized on 6 April 2000 by the National Movement against Terrorism and Sinhalese extremist organizations. In the same communication, the Special Rapporteur considered the case of the arrest on 28 May 2000 of Arul Sathiyanathan, a journalist with the Tamil Government-owned daily Thinakaran. The reporter, who is of Tamil origin, was suspected of having ties with the LTTE.
The case of Mr. Srivagan and Mervin Maheshan, the two organizers of a training seminar for Tamil journalists in Batticaloa who were threatened by anonymous callers who accused them of being spies for the LTTE on 22 April 2001, was also considered by the Special Rapporteur. R. Thurairatnman, correspondent for the Tamil dailies Thinakaran and Daily News and the public sector broadcasting corporation SLBC in Batticaloa, was questioned by members of the anti-subversion police unit regarding his participation in the seminar. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur expressed his concern about the interruption, on 11 May 2000, by the management of the Government-owned Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), of the programme “Sandesaya”, produced by the Sinhalese and Tamil services of the BBC and broadcast by the SLBC. On the same day, BBC and CNN reports on Sri Lanka, broadcast on TV news on the first channel of the SLBC, were censored. The Special Rapporteur also noted with great concern that from 15 to 31 May 2000, Ariya Rubasinghe, director of censorship, sent letters of warning to five publications that had not complied with emergency regulations.
Two Sinhalese-language newspapers, Lankapida and Divaina, and three English-language publications, The Daily Mirror, The Island and The Sunday Leader, were accused by the authorities of publishing articles on the appointment of a new commander-in-chief of the armed forces without submitting them for approval. Another case of concern was the questioning, on 18 May 2000, by nine armed police officers of Namal Perera, news editor at the privately owned television channel TNL at his Colombo home. He was suspected of violating censorship laws. According to the director of censorship, “TNL informed television viewers about an attack without being authorized to do so”. The attack, in which 23 persons died, occurred in Batticaloa. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur raised concern at the banning of Uthayan, a newspaper published in Jaffna, on 20 May 2000, for publishing military information without checking it with the relevant authorities. The chief censorship officer explained that “this newspaper acted maliciously and to our detriment by publishing information favourable to the LTTE”.
The Special Rapporteur also noted with great concern that the weekly The Sunday Leader and its Singhalese-language equivalent, Irida Peramuna, were banned on 22 May 2000 for six months by the censorship office for denouncing corruption within the Government and for questioning a French degree awarded to the President. Ten editors lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court. On 26 June the President reduced the ban on The Sunday Leader and its Sinhalese edition to three months. On 30 June, the Supreme Court ruled that the director of censorship was not authorized to censor articles or close newspapers. Censorship was therefore illegal and the judges ordered the Government to pay US$ 1,500 in damages to the owner of The Sunday Leader. On 5 September the Government revoked regulations 12 (1) and 14 which imposed censorship. The case of Keerthi Kalamegam, a journalist with the Sunday Observer, who decided to go into exile in India because he felt threatened by killers, was also considered in the communication. Author of the book Goodbye Chandrika, the journalist had lost his job for his “overcritical” comments about the President. Finally, in the same communication, the Special Rapporteur raised concern about the following case. On 5 September 2000, Sinha Ratnatunga, publisher of the independent newspaper The Sunday Times, was given a two-year suspended jail sentence after appealing against an initial verdict. The journalist was found guilty in 1997 of libelling Chandrika Kumaratunga.
Observations
224. The Special Rapporteur thanks the Government for its invitation and hopes to receive replies before his visit to Sri Lanka next year.
Visit
225. Following its letter dated 29 April 1998 and 10 November 1999, the Government has extended an invitation this year. The Special Rapporteur was supposed to travel on official mission from 27 November to 2 December 2001. Owing to the elections, the mission was postponed. The Special Rapporteur intends to visit Sri Lanka in early 2002.
