Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in a press release issued Friday said the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) was involved in the abduction and disappearance of Subramaniam Ramachandran, a journalist working for the Tamil daily Yarl Thinakural.
Ramachandran disppeared on 15 February after being questioned at the Kalikai junction, Vadamaradchy SLA camp in Jaffna, and RSF said his colleagues believe that he is being held in an SLA camp.
“Following the police chief’s recent admission that the security forces have been involved in abductions, Reporters Without Borders said it was in a position to affirm that the military participated in the arrest of journalist Subramaniam Ramachandran on 15 February north of Jaffna. Colleagues think he is now being held secretly at a military camp,” the press release said.
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| Journalists demonstrate in front of Colombo’s main railway station to protest against the threats faced by their colleagues, with journalists disappearing, being abducted, killed and or arrested Photo TamilNet |
“We appeal to the authorities to take action to locate and Ramachandran and have him released,” the press freedom organisation said.
“The fact that the government publicly acknowledges the participation of the security forces in kidnapping and forced disappearance is very worrying, but at the same time gives us hope that Ramachandran is still alive.”
Prior to his abduction in the Vadamaradchi area to the north of Jaffna, Ramachandran had written for the Tamil daily Yarl Thinakural about the involvement of a businessman and military officers in sand illegal trafficking. His stories gave such details as the licence numbers of the vehicles involved and the businessman’s connections with certain officers.
The circumstances of his disappearance establish beyond any doubt that the SLA was involved, RSF said.
“Accompanied by a friend, he left the school he runs in Karaveddy at around 6 p.m. on 15 February. When they arrived next to the Kalikai Junction military camp, soldiers ordered them to stop for questioning. Ramachandran was taken into the camp while his friend was asked to leave.”
“According to witness, a vehicle containing a military intelligence officer, two members of the EPDP (a pro-government Tamil militia) and an army informer arrived one hour later, and then left a few minutes after that with Ramachandran. His family has had no word of him since then. Several Jaffna-based journalists say he is being held in a military camp in the north of the island.”
Separately, the chief editor of the Uthayan newspaper published in Jaffna called upon all fellow journalists to act immediately and take necessary action to safeguard journalists associated with the Uthayan, and all Tamil journalists in the Jaffna.
Publishing the daily newspaper Uthayan in Jaffna is an increasingly Herculean and dangerous task with armed gunmen who continuously threaten its work and staff, says the chief editor, V. Kanamailnathan.
Writing to the Editors Guild of Sri Lanka, Kanamailnathan says journalists & employees working in the night face this risk each second of every day, with absolutely no respite.
"Threats in the last four months have increased. Incidents that have occurred during this period have made our journalists and essential staff lead a stressful life of fear and insecurity", the letter states.
Complaints to the police and other authorities have not proved fruitful, the chief editor says.
"This letter is to urge you to kindly bring the traumatic conditions that we are hostages of , to the attention of all our colleagues of the Editors Guild of Sri Lanka", he said
"We are being throttled and systematically targeted – we need your help, now more than ever, to secure our livelihoods, our profession and a shared commitment to the inviolable values of democracy and the freedom of the media", the letter further states.
Upali Tennakoon, president of the Editors Guild told the BCC Sinala service that the guild had discussed the issue and decided to write to the President Mahinda Rajapakse about the plight of journalists in the north and specially of the journalists of the Uthayan newspaper.
