SRI LANKA: Journalist's Widow Accepts Posthumous Award 'in Hiding'

 By Lynette Lee Corporal

BANGKOK, Mar 26 (AMF) -  Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge, widow of slain Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge, would have wanted to be at a media conference here to accept an award on behalf of her late husband. But fresh threats to her life have prevented her from doing so.

   "Yes, I am under serious threat. I have been strongly advised that my life and liberty are in serious jeopardy so I live from day to day assessing the situation," Sonali told the Asia Media Forum via email. She remains, as of this writing, at an undisclosed place.

   In a brief but solemn ceremony, Lasantha's colleague at 'The Sunday Leader' Dilrukshi Handunnetti, editor of Investigations Desk, accepted the 1st Asia Media Award for Press Freedom on Solani's behalf. The event was one of the highlights of the 'Asia Media Conference 2009' being held here in the Thai capital until Friday. 

   Wickrematunge, the hard-hitting 'Sunday Leader' editor-in-chief, was shot several times at pointblank range while on his way to work on Jan. 8, 2009 by still unidentified motorcycle-riding assailants. His death evoked outrage among local and international media and press freedom advocates. Suspicions pointed to pro-government groups as being behind the killings, despite the Sri Lankan government's condemnation of the assassination.

   In a statement thanking the AMF for the award, Solani said that despite numerous threats and physical attacks before his death, Lasantha continued his work undeterred. "His publicly stated motto was, 'Unbowed and unafraid," said Solani, a lawyer who is also former editor-in-chief of 'The Morning Leader'.

   Of the conference, she said: "Lasantha would want this. More conferences. More action. More voices to emerge. He had many dreams. A classless society. Media that existed in the public interest. Politicians that worked for the public interest. Peaceful and negotiated solution to conflict. Lasantha died in pursuit of his dream. So did Martin Luther King."

   Before she went into hiding, Solani reported seeing a pair of motorcycle-riding persons in black fatigues, black helmets and dark bandannas -- similar to the ones that followed Lasantha on the day he died -- watching her home on Feb. 13, a month after her husband's death.

   "Another person has forcibly taken photographs of the inside and outside of my home, brushing aside any protests by the domestic aide and my elderly mother who were present at the time," she added.

   According to her, the government believes she has access to some "sensitive information" that her late husband could have had possession of. 

   "My husband and I, for our work, have been constantly labeled as traitors to the Sinhala nation... However, Lasantha and I strongly and completely opposed and condemned terrorism and the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). We only advocated a peaceful solution. We were only against a country bombing its own civilians, (as well as the violation and abuse of thousands of innocent civilians, and the idea of a Sinhala Buddhist state to the exclusion of others," she wrote in her email.

   "My husband only asked that every human being be treated equally and with respect," she added.

   Since 1983, the South Asian island nation of Sri Lanka has been torn by conflict between the state and the Tamil Tiger rebels who want a separate homeland for minority Tamils. The conflict has already claimed the lives of about 70,000 people, and has displaced hundreds of thousands more.

   "My husband, in addition to being outspoken on human rights issues, espoused a peaceful negotiated resolution of the conflict between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities and was strongly critical of corruption within government. Lasantha was physically attacked three times by armed men, and on one occasion his house was sprayed by machine gun fire," Sonali said in her statement.

   In a letter to the Inspector General of Police dated Mar. 15, 2009, Sonali reiterated her previous requests for "an independent investigation into the killing with an international team of inquirers and forensic experts". She also asked that the investigation be transferred to the Criminal Investigations Department.

   She also made an appeal that the government follow through on its Jan. 28 media statement, where it said it had information about the identity of her husband's killers and promised that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse himself would release a statement about it on Feb. 15.

   "It has been over two months since my husband was killed and there has still been no credible breakthrough in the investigation. No murder weapon, no suspect, no post-mortem report has still been made public," wrote Sonali in her letter.

   In her closing statement for the award, Sonali urged journalists to use the power of their pens to urge Rajapakse to finally allow an independent inquiry into her husband's death and 16 other media workers who have died under the present government. 

   "I can only but implore you... to see through the face of democracy panted by President Rajapakse and his government, to the failing democracy in Sri Lanka...," she said. (END/IPSAP/LLC/JS/260309)

* * *

Read Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge's 'Thank You' speech here.

Download a copy of her letter to the Inspector General of Police below: