OneWorld.net (U.S.)

NEW YORK, Jan 13 (OneWorld.net) - The Sri Lankan government is facing heavy criticism from international rights advocacy organizations and media freedom groups for its inability to protect journalists from violence and killings.

"The pleas made to this regime for the conduct of investigations into blatant crimes and gross abuses of human rights have fallen on deaf ears," said the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in a strongly worded statement.

Internally displaced people in Sri Lanka. © springm (flickr)Last week, in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, a prominent investigative journalist was killed and a major television station was blatantly attacked. The attackers reportedly used landmines and grenades to destroy the station.

"The fact that these attacks were carried out in broad daylight against vocal critics of the government without any arrests adds to the climate of impunity," said Roger Normand, Asia-Pacific director at the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).

Rights activists who keep track of human rights violations and acts of state repression seem increasingly worried about the possibility of further attacks on the media in the coming days and weeks if the government fails to arrest those responsible for recent violence.

Sri Lanka's media minister has condemned the attack, however. Last week, he said the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse had ordered a full investigation. But many remain doubtful about the government's real intentions.

The opposition believes the MBC television station was targeted because of its coverage of the country's conflict. Just days earlier, the state-run media had criticized the station for giving too much coverage to a suicide attack perpetrated by Tamil Tiger rebels.

In the opposition's view, journalist Lasantha Wickramatunga was killed for similar reasons. He was shot at by unidentified gunmen in close proximity to a security forces checkpoint. The journalist was driving to work in the morning when he was killed.

Sri Lanka has been mired in ethnic violence between the Sinhalese-dominated national army and the Tamil Tiger rebels who want a separate homeland in the north of the island nation. The armed conflict, which has been on and off since 1983, has taken tens of thousands of lives and is considered one of the deadliest in the world.

Early this month, government forces captured a major stronghold of the Tamil rebels. President Rajapakse called it an unparalleled victory and said he wants the rebels to surrender.

A ceasefire between the government and rebels in late 2002 raised hopes for a lasting settlement. But peace talks stalled and monitors reported open violations of the truce by the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Intense violence between the two sides in 2006 killed hundreds of people and raised fears of a return to all-out war. Last January, the government withdrew from the 2002 ceasefire agreement, which expired two weeks later.

Rights watchdogs and media organizations say with intimidation and violence constantly on the rise, Sri Lanka has become one of the most difficult and dangerous countries in the world to report from.

Amnesty International said last month that at least 10 media workers had been killed in Sri Lanka since 2006. In its annual press freedom index last year, Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reports Without Borders) ranked Sri Lanka 165 out of 173 countries.

Critics charge that since 2006 the Rajapakse regime has increasingly tried to intimidate journalists and others who hold critical views of the government's military policies and human rights practices.

The government defends its tough ways of dealing with the opposition by arguing that it needs to balance its national security concerns with obligations to protect human rights.

But many activists don't believe the government's efforts have even secured more security for its citizens.

"The nation has never been more insecure and the cause of the nation's insecurity is the ruling regime itself," the AHRC statement said.

The AHRC does not believe that the government, emboldened by this month's military gains, is likely to heed global calls for unfettered media and improved human rights conditions.

"It is time to raise the antennas to issue early warning signals, locally and internationally, about the situation of democratic freedoms and human rights which have become unmanageable disasters in Sri Lanka," warned AHRC.

Brad Adams of the international monitoring group Human Rights Watch said the government must not only condemn violence against journalists, but also bring the perpetrators to justice.

"For too many years and in too many cases, those who commit violence have gone unpunished while those who dared to speak have paid with their lives," he said. "This culture of impunity has to end now."

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