(FMM/IFEX) – According to “Prajathanthra” (the Foundation for Media Freedom in a Democracy), Sri Lankan journalist D.B.S. Jeyaraj, who now lives in Canada, is being subjected to death threats and other warnings by members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are carrying on a war of separation in Sri Lanka. Jeyaraj, who […]
(FMM/IFEX) – According to “Prajathanthra” (the Foundation for
Media Freedom in a Democracy), Sri Lankan journalist D.B.S.
Jeyaraj, who now lives in Canada, is being subjected to death
threats and other warnings by members of the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are carrying on a war of separation in
Sri Lanka.
Jeyaraj, who was Mason Fellow at Harvard University School of
Journalism in 1989-90, is a freelance journalist. He now writes a
column for the “Sunday Island” in Sri Lanka, which is critical of
the LTTE. He also writes for “Frontline” of India and the “Tamil
Times”, which is published in London. He has also edited weekly
newsletters in Canada such as “Senthamarai” and “Muncharie”,
which enjoyed a wide circulation among the Tamil community in
Canada, particularly in Toronto. He had previously written a
regular column, entitled “Behind the Cadjan Curtain”, for the
“Sunday Island” which analysed conditions faced by the Tamil
community and the activities of the LTTE in northern Sri Lanka.
He left Sri Lanka in the mid 1980s after being arrested and
detained under Emergency Regulations for his writings. Jeyaraj
was released only after requests by foreign and local journalists
in Sri Lanka.
He was targeted in the past for speaking his mind about the LTTE
and, in February 1993, was physically assaulted in Canada by a
gang of Tamil youths armed with baseball bats. He sustained
injuries to his head and leg.
In December 1995, there was a rampage against the retail outlets
of “Mancharie” in West Toronto and Mississagua, also in Canada,
as well as the actual forced removal of copies of the paper from
some Tamil shops. Threats were made to customers if they
purchased the publications. The incidents left one shopkeeper
injured and one vehicle damaged. Following the repeated threats
of assault on Jeyaraj, and on those who sold and bought the Tamil
publications he edited in Canada, he suspended his involvement
with these publications in 1995.
Some of the articles written by Jeyaraj on Tamil gang warfare in
Toronto, and the situation in Sri Lanka, have been critical of
the role of the LTTE in Sri Lanka and the stranglehold it has on
the lives of the Tamils here. His writings in English catering to
a larger cross section of readership have considerably magnified
the focus of the international community on the issue of human
rights violations in Sri Lanka.
On August 20 1997, the Tamil weekly “Muzhakkam” (Thunder)
published from Toronto and Ottawa, carried a column on Jeyaraj
illustrated with a cartoon depicting a dog with an injured leg
(an obvious reference to the earlier assault which broke his
leg). The caption lauded the assault and accosted the persons for
not carrying their efforts to the logical end. The caption read:
“If a dog loses only a leg it will continue to bark … whatever
job undertaken must be completed with perfection….”
Between 29 August and 13 September 1997, Jeyaraj received several
abusive and threatening messages over the telephone by male
callers, using either cellular or unlisted phone services. Given
the past record, it is most likely that Jeyaraj is again being
targeted for attack, and this time of a more serious nature,
which may even lead to his death, given the record of the LTTE in
dealing with Tamil journalists critical of it.
