(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the Tamil Tigers’ (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE) persistent attempts to silence the Tamil-language weekly “Thinamurasu”. RSF expressed particular concern over the ambush of a “Thinamurasu” distribution truck on 7 August 2003 by some 50 armed LTTE activists. They torched 5,000 copies of the newspaper after forcing the truck […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the Tamil Tigers’ (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE) persistent attempts to silence the Tamil-language weekly “Thinamurasu”. RSF expressed particular concern over the ambush of a “Thinamurasu” distribution truck on 7 August 2003 by some 50 armed LTTE activists. They torched 5,000 copies of the newspaper after forcing the truck to stop in Sunkankeni, near the eastern town to Batticaloa.
In a letter to S. P. Tamilselvan, the head of the LTTE’s political wing, RSF called on the organisation to put an end to its threats and acts of violence against “Thinamurasu”‘s staff and distributors.
RSF said it was essential for the Tamil population to have access to a diverse range of news sources, all the more so now that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have made very serious accusations against the LTTE.
Following the ambush, the newspaper’s managing editor filed a complaint with the Norwegian observers in charge of monitoring compliance with the truce between the LTTE and the government.
“Thinamurasu” (“Daily Drumbeat”) is one of the biggest-circulation newspapers in Tamil and often reports on human rights violations, including executions and abductions, by the LTTE in the east and north of the country.
Editor T. Baskaran told RSF that “Thinamurasu” is the only Tamil-language paper to report on human rights violations. “We must pay the price of our independence because the LTTE expects all Tamil news media to say nothing about its violence. Those who don’t obey are harassed.”
“Thinamurasu” supports the EPDP, a Tamil political party that is radically opposed to the LTTE. The weekly has been the target of threats and attacks for several years. In June, the LTTE leader in the northwestern district of Mannar threatened “Thinamurasu”‘s local correspondents with “the worst consequences” if the newspaper continued to be distributed in the region.
The newspaper’s distributor in eastern Sri Lanka pulled out of his distribution contract in March 2002 after receiving LTTE threats. In May and June 2002, the LTTE banned the paper from circulating in Batticaloa. Norwegian observers were forced to intervene to get it back on newsstands. In November 1999, “Thinamurasu”‘s then managing editor Nadarajah Atputharajah, alias “Ramesh”, who was also an EPDP parliamentarian, was murdered in Jaffna (see IFEX alert of 16 November 1999). The authors of the killing were never identified and the motive behind it was never established.
