TNS Corner
Abducted journalist found killed, government blamed for killing
Paul Emmanuel
Apr 29, 2005, 04:45

Mr. Dharmeratnam Sivaram

Colombo - Renowned Tamil journalist, Mr. Dharmeratnam Sivaram, who was kidnapped late Thursday night at 10:30 pm was found dead earlier today morning at Himbulala, a Sinhala suburb, according to media sources.   Assailants who kidnapped him from the front of the Bamabalapitiya Police station are believed to be have killed him, according to media sources. 

Mr. Sivaram was kidnapped as he left a restaurant situated right opposite the Bamabalapitiya Police station according to the Sri Lankan Free Media Movement.

Government forces have been blamed for the murder by many sectors including the media sector.   One visibly angry Tamil journalist here said, “This has happened in the capital and in the heart of the city.  This government is not only unwilling to protect independent journalists, but is also actively involved in the killing them to stifle free expression.”

In the past the government has been directly involved in threatening and intimidating Sivaram.  He has also been threatened by armed groups believed to be clandestinely working with the Sri Lankan state and an extremist Sinhala political group in the past.  His latest articles were centered on this group as well.

On May 3, 2004, a large group of Sri Lanka Police personnel raided Sivaram's home in Colombo. Scores of special Policemen from the Kohuwela and Mount Lavinia Police stations, in the outer suburbs of Colombo, searched the journalist's house and its premises claiming they were looking for a cache of dangerous weapons hidden there.

"The raid on the Tamil journalist's home is an act of crude intimidation aimed at stepping up pressure on Mr. Sivaram's family and thereby prevents him from writing critically on sensitive issues affecting the Tamil people. That the Police should have chosen World Press Freedom Day to raid a well known Tamil journalist's home speaks volumes for the state of media freedom in Sri Lanka,"Mr. R. Thurairatnam, President of the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance said in a statement immediately after the raid.

Three months later on July 23, 2004, Sri Lankan Police personnel again raided Mr. Sivaram's home. In a press release, Reporters without Borders (RSF) said, "A dozen [Sri Lankan] police without a warrant searched the Colombo home of Dharmaretnam Sivaram, editor of the news website TamilNet.com for the second time in three months on 23 July." "Reporters Without Borders deplored the post-midnight raid as unjustified and said it was worried about his safety," the release further said.

Mr. Sivaram was with two of his friends, Rajpal Abeynayake of the Sri Lanka Sunday Times and, Senathirajah Jeyanandamoorthy, a MP for the eastern Batticoloa district when police arrived at the journalist's home for the second raid on July 23, 2004. Despite having parliamentary immunity, Mr.Jeyanandamoorthy, MP, too was searched at that time.

In 2001, Mr.D.Sivaram and Mr.Wijetharan, 'Thinakathir' editor, were wounded in an attack by unidentified men. The journalists were attacked by men armed with clubs who had arrived in a van to the Thinakathir office, an independent Tamil daily published in Batticaloa. Persons connected with the security forces were blamed on that attack.

The Reporters Sans Frontiers, the French media watchdog, and many other international media organization continually expressed their fear that working conditions for Tamil journalists remain very dangerous in Sri Lanka.

In 2000, another senior Tamil journalist, Mylvaganam Nimalrajan, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the Sri Lanka Army's high security zone in Jaffna town. Groups working closely with the government were believed to be behind the killing. 

"The journalist received threats from officials of the pro-government Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), which has been accused of human rights violations in several articles and reports. The investigators must seriously look into this hypothesis," RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said in an statement six months after Nimalrajan’s murder.