current killing trend is due to the on-going war in the north east

Professionalism in killings foxes them all

According to many civil rights activists, the current killing trend is due to the on-going war in the north east the culture of impunity

By Wilson Gnanadass
The fatality figures in Sri Lanka are perhaps telling a story, which would be that, the on-going north east war focuses progressively on internecine killings.
The death rate in Sri Lanka is steadily increasing to a gruesome toll and pathetically the majority of the murder cases are going uninvestigated.

Political and personal murders have taken place from time immemorial but majority of the murder cases going uninvestigated has never been heard of, in the past.
The brutal assassination of The Sunday Leader Editor-in-chief and veteran journalist Lasantha Wickramatunge on Thursday January 8, has reminded the entire country of the similar killing of another veteran journalist Richard de Zoysa in 1990.

If investigations into the killing of Zoysa have still not produced any positive results, it is unlikely that even the investigations into Wickramatunga’s killing would bring any results.

The civil rights activists are now increasingly worried about the growing number of killings and the successive government’s lukewarm attitude in carrying out the investigations.

Serious questions are raised as to why successive governments have failed to conduct proper investigations into the series of killings of politicians, journalists and human rights workers.
According to many civil rights activists, the current trend is due to two important reasons; one is the on-going military conflict in the north east and the other is the culture of impunity.

A random look at some of the killings that have gone uninvestigated is nothing but scary.
“In the good old days, if one murder takes place, we talk about it for months. But now, it is simply forgotten within the same day,” observed ex-minister and veteran politician Sirisena Cooray.

Uninvestigated murders
Fingers have been pointed at the ruling party immediately after each assassination. No government, it must be underscored, has taken prompt action to bring the culprits to book immediately after a killing.
According to Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, it has not been too easy to find evidence for any government to immediately complete investigations into killings.

“For instance, the investigation into the killing of former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar is still pending,” the Minister said.
However, the onus is on the incumbent government to ensure that the culprits are brought to book and a proper investigation is carried out immediately after a killing. Otherwise the public fingers would obviously be pointed at the governments.

When former minister and veteran politician Lalith Athulathmudali was assassinated at an election rally held in Kirullapone on April 23, 1993, the immediate suspect was none other than President Ranasinghe Premadasa.
But later it was revealed that a person named Ragunathan, assigned by the LTTE was responsible for the killing.

Chilling murders
In the early hours of February 18 1990 journalist and television newsreader Richard de Zoysa was abducted from his home in Colombo.

The next evening his body was washed ashore on Lunawa beach. He had been shot in the head. He had burn marks on his body. Richard was 32 at the time of his death.

To this date, the investigation into his death has not been completed.
Dharmaratnam Sivaram was also killed on April 28 2005. He was a popular Tamil journalist. He was kidnapped by four men in a white van in front of the Bambalapitiya police station.

His body was later found the next day about 500 metres from the country’s parliamentary precincts in Sri Jayawardenepura. He had been beaten and shot in the head.

Forensic expert Jeanne Perera, who conducted the post-mortem, reported that Sivaram had been hit on the back of the head and shoulders and shot at pointblank range.
To date, the investigation that was initiated by the government has not been completed.

Kumar Ponnambalam, another leading Tamil politician was shot dead in Colombo on January 5, 2000.
The assassination took place barely three days after he wrote an open letter to the then President Chandrika Kumaratunga, severely castigating her regime.

Still there has not been any proper investigation into the killing of Ponnambalam.
Mylvaganam Nimalrajan, is yet another senior Tamil journalist based in Jaffna who was shot dead by gunmen on October 19, 2000. The shooting took place near Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil in Jaffna – an area declared as High Security Zone (HSZ).
He had worked for BBC’s Tamil and Sinhala language services, Virakesari and Ravaya as a freelancer.

The assailants shot the journalist through the window of his study, where he was working on an article, and threw a grenade into the home before fleeing the premises. The attack occurred during curfew hours in a high-security zone in central Jaffna town. But there has not been any results emerging from the investigations the authorities carried out.

Another popular Tamil politician Joseph Pararajasingham was also killed while attending midnight mass at Christmas 2005.
He was inside the Church in Batticaloa when gunmen opened fire on him at close range, in the presence of the entire congregation and the clergymen, including the Batticaloa/ Trincomalee Bishop Rt. Rev. Dr. Kingsly Swamipillai.

The Church is also situated in the heart of Batticalao and in the High Security Zone (HSZ). To date, there has not been any outcome of the investigation the government undertook.

Reports indicated that the killings may have been carried out by a break away group of the LTTE.
T. Maheswaran, a former minister and member of the opposition United National Party, was also shot dead by unknown attackers and died in hospital. He was killed on January 1 2008. So far the culprits have not been apprehended or investigation completed.

Nadarajah Raviraj, another vociferous Tamil legislator and a human rights lawyer was killed on November 10 2006, in broad daylight.

Barely 24 hours before his assassination he led a protest demonstration in front of the UNICEF office in Colombo regarding the Vakarai bombing allegedly by the Sri Lankan troops of a school that led to the death of 45 civilians. The following day he was killed. So far there has not been any report of his killing.

Modus operandi
The modus operandi and the manner, in which these people had been killed, are sufficient evidence, that these killer groups had been well trained.

A leading lawyer, who wished to remain anonymous, said that if there was a political will, the investigations into these killings could have been completed with accurate results.

According to him, it is the incumbent governments that have put the lid on each investigation and added assassinations of this nature could not have been carried out without state sponsorship or assistance.
In Sri Lanka two factors have contributed immensely to the growing rate of killings. One is the north east conflict and the other is the culture of impunity.

The ongoing conflict has facilitated the proliferation of weapons into the island nation and today all types of weapons are used by killers to eliminate their opponents.

Of all the killings that have taken place in Sri Lanka the majority of the killings have been political.
One wonders whether killing a person in such a broad daylight is possible without the assistance of the state.
The law enforcement authorities have been in most cases impotent when it comes to bring the culprits to book.

Cost of NE war
Sri Lanka has so far spent colossal amounts of money on the north east war. The cost in terms of human lives is appalling. The war has also caused economic and social affects.
Besides, the gun culture that is prevalent in Sri Lanka is also a by product of the conflict that has been devastating the country for the past three decades or so.

Today, there are various armed groups, freely roaming about in the towns and cities and they are not only hired for killings but are also used by politicians for their own political work.

If the north east conflict is brought to an end, many civil rights activists say, the gun culture in Sri Lanka could be eliminated. Due to the prevailing terrorism in the country, they say there have been continuous bombings and killings on either side. The civil rights activists say this has changed the entire culture of Sri Lanka.

Mano Ganesan, the Civil Monitoring Committee (CMM) and Parliamentarian says the gun culture took deep roots in the island nation only in the mid seventies.

“Prior to this, we did not hear of people killing each other,” he said. He warned that if corrective measures are not taken forthwith, there could be a further erosion of the value system the country has been blessed with.

He said when the people start to lose confidence in the democratic system when killings take place under this system, then, the people will start to look for alternatives. “Then they might want a dictator to wipe out this menace. This is dangerous,” he said.

But for Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, some cases are too complicated that the government is simply not able to put to use its own machinery to reveal the culprits.

“The nature of the killings is of such a complex background and executed in such a way, it might take time. As Human Rights minister my objective has been these kinds of incidents cannot be tolerated and accepted and we have to demonstrate to the world that we are committed and capable of apprehending the culprits,” he said.