Increasing Government Control, Repression: Sri Lankan journalists fear situation may worsen. ‘One of the few journalists who survived after being abducted by a van squad was brutally tortured — his legs crushed, fingers broken and body burned — before being released.’
Associated Press•November 13, 2019
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Forced to flee their country a decade ago to escape allegedly state-sponsored killer squads, Sri Lankan journalists living in exile doubt they’ll be able to return home soon or see justice served to their tormentors — whose alleged ringleader could come to power in this weekend’s presidential election.
Exiled journalists and media rights groups are disappointed by the current government’s failure in punishing those responsible for crimes committed against media members during President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tenure from 2005 to 2015.
And with Rajapaksa’s younger brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa — the former defense chief suspected of being behind the attacks — favored to win Saturday’s election, they do not believe the situation will change anytime soon.
The current government led by President Maithripala Sirisena came to power in 2015 and promised to end impunity on crimes against journalists and media organizations. But more than four years later, police investigations still have not led to any convictions on media attacks.
“We are not satisfied with the measures taken by this government in probing the attacks on media,” said Duminda Sampath, president of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, the largest media organization in the country, adding that “none of the culprits accused of attacks on media have so far been exposed or punished.”
During Mahinda Rajapaksa’s time as president, several journalists were assassinated by unidentified killers, while others were abducted in mysterious white vans and tortured before being either killed or released. The abductions and killings took place during the final years of Sri Lanka’s long civil war, which ended in 2009. While there are no proper records to show how many were abducted or killed, Sampath said around 60 journalists fled the country during this period out of fear for their lives.
The abductions of journalists and critics of the government in the white vans was a symbol of oppression during the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is credited with ending the quarter century-long civil war. The war ended with the military crushing the Tamil Tiger rebels, who were fighting for a separate homeland for the Indian Ocean island nation’s ethnic Tamil majority.
Poddala Jayantha is one of the few journalists who survived after being abducted by a van squad. He was taken on June 1, 2009, just after the war’s end, and was brutally tortured — his legs crushed, fingers broken and body burned — before being released.