Tamil journalist Puniyamoorthy Sathiyamoorthy, who was killed by a Sri Lankan artillery barrage inside the ‘No Fire Zone’ in February 2009, was remembered by the Tamil National People's Front.
The TNPF held a remembrance event in their Jaffna office today to mark 15 years since his death.
Sathiyamoorthy, who began contributing to 'Pulikalin Kural' (Voice of Tigers) later wrote the military column for the 'Eezhanaatham' daily. He was reporting from inside the 'No Fire Zone' when Sri Lankan artillery shells landed in the Mullaitivu district.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that Sathiyamoorthy "strove to maintain journalistic standards and an accurate representation of the wartime situations in which he found himself. His work had global impact, reaching large numbers of Tamils living overseas."
“Several Tamil media reports said Sathiyamoorthy did not die immediately. They cited relatives who said a lack of proper medical attention contributed to his death," the CPJ wrote in a statement.
The Sri Lankan government declared three No Fire Zones between January 2009 and May 2009 in which they encouraged over 300,000 Tamils to gather there, claiming that they would be safe there. The No Fire Zones were subjected to heavy artillery by the Sri Lankan military and the state heavily restricted medicines and food entering these areas.
The 2015 OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) stated that "almost immediately after their creation, the NFZs, including protected civilian objects, such as hospitals, came under sustained fire from the Sri Lankan security forces."
The TNPF also remembered Murugathasan Varnakulasingham, 26 year old Tamil man who self-immolated in protest outside the United Nations in Geneva over the inaction of the international community in the face of the 2009 genocide of Tamils. He was also remembered in London today.
