Impunity reigns in the north and the south: Karu

Senior UNP Parliamentarian Karu Jayasuriya hit out at the government yesterday claiming that the attack on the Sunday Leader journalist Faraz Shaukatally proved that terrorism was alive and well in the country and armed groups continued operating outside the ambit of the law with impunity.

The fact that such attacks on the media have gone uninvestigated and unresolved pointed at the government’s complicity in seeking to suppress the people’s right to information, the UNP Legislator said: “The fact that these attackers get away scot free time and again is an indictment on the armed forces and the police,” Jayasuriya charged.

Sunday Leader investigative reporter Shaukatally, 52, was injured when three unidentified men walked into his home at Mount Lavinia and shot at him. The CID has taken over inquiries into the shooting while the attacked journalist continues to receive treatment at the National Hospital Colombo, where he underwent surgery.

Jayasuriya said the attacks on journalists were not limited to the south, where state media and violence were stifling dissent.

“In the north too intimidation and violence is perpetrated against those holding alternative views,” he said highlighting the attack on a Thinnakural news agent in Point Pedro recently. The news agent had been attacked with poles and his bundle of newspapers had been set ablaze, a statement from Jayasuriya said.

The UNP Parliamentarian said that it was a glaring indictment on Sri Lanka’s post-war trajectory that Sri Lanka was listed at 168 out of 179 countries in the World Press Freedom Index: “13 journalists have been killed since 2005. More than 25 live in exile. The attack on Shaukatally is no isolated incident. This is not the first time the Sunday Leader has been subject to attacks; its editor was killed in 2009,” Jayasuriya said.

The senior politician claimed that it was regrettable that the Government did not realize that this latest attack on the media would be a black mark against it when the country faced the 22nd UNHRC Sessions in Geneva later this week and throughout March. Jayasuriya appealed for this latest attack to become a moment of galvanization of people power opposed to the erosion of democracy and human rights in the country: “The hunt to suppress the citizenry is indiscriminate, it will take a collective, all encompassing effort to defeat the trend,” he charged.