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Jaffna, Netherlands

Jaffna, Netherlands

RNW team threatened in Sri Lanka

Published on : 21 July 2011 – 3:14pm | By International Justice Desk (Radio Netherlands)

Sri Lanka’s reputation as an Indian Ocean paradise may hold true for determined holidaymakers, but for the sober-minded this image has been shattered in recent months.




First a damning UN report accused both sides in the country’s 30-year civil war of atrocities – a claim the current government refutes categorically.




Then in June British TV station Channel 4 broadcast a devastating account of the closing weeks of the conflict in 2009. At this time, the programme said, the Sri Lankan military systematically murdered thousands of civilians.

Colombo says the evidence is ‘fabricated’. Distinguishing truth from artifice is problematic in a country where the free press claims it is under constant threat. Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) sent a team to Sri Lanka to investigate.

Reporters with borders

In a new report the International Crisis Group says Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa and his powerful brothers "continue to repress the media and political opponents”. Other rights groups describe killings and disappearances of reporters alongside police impunity.

They also claim a widespread lack of press freedom, that the media does not tell it as it is, and that people are afraid to speak to reporters. Pressure is brought to bear on them with the use of armed men in white mini-vans, who kidnap or murder journalists. RNW’s team experienced that phenomenon first hand after a surprise roadside attack.

No visa

Few Western reporters have visited the former Tamil Tiger administered north and east of the country in the past year – journalist visas are not issued without months of bureaucratic delays.

Travelling from the relatively affluent capital Colombo, RNW’s two person team (who will remain anonymous for their safety, and that of the people they spoke to) saw how the further eastward one travels the poorer and more militarised the country becomes.

Entering on tourist visas to a former Tamil Tiger administered region, RNW spoke to locals on subjects as diverse as business, sport and the UN’s development role.

Interrogation

During one such conversation in a restaurant they were spied on and reported to the police, who later that night arrived at the hotel for a midnight interrogation. Ten police officers, including the Chief of Police, scared the team into leaving the region.

The following morning, on their way back to the well trodden tourist path, they were robbed and attacked at gunpoint by a gang in a white van.

Listen to their account of what happened. For security reasons, we have called them  ‘Olivia’ and ‘Philip’. They were speaking to RNW’s Dheera Sujan. (Story continues below):




White van tactic

The intimidation of the ‘white van tactic’ that Sri Lankan reporters had described now came sharply into focus.




“The police reaction is absurd, but it shows the fear of anything that, in their perception, might be connected to the Channel 4 programme or the UN investigation into war crimes”, Sanjana Hattotuwa from the independent Colombo-based media watchdog Groundviews told RNW.

“The government reaction is understandable because their stance has always been that there were no war crimes committed by their side – so they clamp down violently on anyone suggesting otherwise,” he added.

Leading the way

Raisa Wickrematunge from Sri Lanka’s most controversial newspaper, The Sunday Leader, believes the attack on Western journalists marks a new low.

"What is particularly shocking is the robbery that happened… Disappearances and things like this unfortunately still happen here. So in that sense it’s not really a first, but it’s quite shocking that they did this to foreign journalists, particularly the robbery."

Raisa is the niece of the Leader’s outspoken and fearless former editor Lasantha Wickrematunge who was gunned down in 2009. The paper’s Colombo newsroom is adorned with pictures of a smiling Wickrematunge, pen in hand.

Raisa joined the paper shortly after his murder, wanting to keep the memories and values of her uncle alive. "But after it happened, we decided we can’t take that same hard line. Because the fact is that in the past people would attack us, now they would kill us."

Self-censorship

Sri Lankan journalists self-censor to protect themselves. The current editor of the Sunday Leader Frederica Jansz explains why. "I don’t do this myself. I am willing to die for my job. But I understand that not everybody will do this."

Raisa says the fears are legitimate: "Many (reporters) … are taken in those white vans and they vanish. There are also cases documented where people were taken and abandoned later with their legs broken."

Mini-van, big trouble

The white van phenomenon is well-known to the Tamil diaspora. Donald Gnanakone, the president of pressure group Tamils for Justice, based in Los Angeles, told RNW: “You got white-vanned. This is a state-terrorist act’”.

Other reactions to the RNW experience confirm the likelihood of this being an example of state-sponsored press intimidation. A senior European diplomat working in Colombo, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “You can be sure this is the authorities sending you a message”.

Fear is the key




That a conversation can be overheard and misconstrued by informants, and then reported to the police is a story not commonly associated with South Asia.




Raisa Wickrematunge is pessimistic for the prospects of free speech in Sri Lanka’. "I don’t think that [objective journalism] is possible in this country. There are so many things you can’t write about."

"Even if you call people and say that you’re from the Sunday Leader, there is immediately this sense of fear, people don’t want to talk to you. We have to be very careful what we write about."

Seen as one of the most precious of human rights, freedom of speech is never absolute. The right to speak freely without censorship is subject to limitations in every country, as this series of articles and videos shows.

Discussion




Sujatha 29 July 2011 – 10:24am / Sri Lanka

• reply

This article seems to be a fabricated one to justify war-crime allegations against Sri Lanka and to promote anti-government forces. These so-called RNW journalists only interviews NGO based people and the anti-government newspaper in Sri Lanka. if press freedom is not there, how Sunday Leader newspaper itself functioning withing the territory of Sri Lanka. also. How Mr. Hattotuwa running his news website in Colombo. this is very poor quality journalism by RNW. biased and fabricated. I am a real fan of RNW website and didnt expect this kind of partial and biased reporting without facts. you will loose your credibilty. be vigilant




Anonymous 23 July 2011 – 5:34pm

• reply

Listening to the interview I got the impression that the lady is obviously too shaken by her experience and being inexperienced is biased while the gentleman had a more balanced view. It is obvious that the robbery would have been to take out any interview material, pictures or what ever than to rob or physically cause harm.

A few points. The LTTE carders now wouldn’t mind at all an independent inquiry as their accountable leadership is all gone and only the govt. side could suffer any harmful consequences. To be reasonable the Northern and Eastern areas which were under the total control of the LTTE can not be just allowed to free wheel when you consider that there was no other leadership or social network after the LTTE destroyed every opposition to it. While it assassinated Rajiv Gandhi and a Sri Lankan President, nearly killed a second and many Sinhalese and Moslem leaders, it killed more Tamil leaders who opposed them. No government which had lost control and after all the sacrifices it also made could be expected to say "War is over and now control your areas."

Yes, the government has its fears of a resurgence of any violence. It is a fragile peace that exists right now as the island settles into normalcy. The Tamil Diaspora and many elements that supported the separate state feel humiliated in defeat and would like a distabilising of the situation towards gaining an independent state. They talk of Eritrea, Kosovo, E.Timor. The govt. is releasing rehabilitated former LTTE carders batch by batch depending on the level of involvement. Issues like the Ch 4 and other such only delay this process towards normalcy and becomes a distracter.

The Sinhalese and Moslems and the upcountry Tamils are firm that the islands has no place for a separate state. There are more Tamils living outside the North and East who live peacefully. The Tamils have sacrificed even basic needs in the areas in the 30 years that it was under LTTE control and the rest of the island terrible fear of attacks suicide and other. Most Sri Lankans even those who oppose the government are sick of Western double standards and ask why wasn’t there any war crimes against Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan….?

What do we expect in just 2 years after 30 years of war? Allow it a little more time for fear and suspicion on both sides to ease. There are lots of people on both sides trying hard to build it and the government for its part is not by any means stalling things deliberately to keep these areas under tight military control for ever. After all just a month ago it even removed restrictions of free travel to the former conflict areas……

Birchmount 23 July 2011 – 5:11pm