Lasantha Wickrematunge

Lasantha Manilal Wickrematunge ( si, ලසන්ත වික්‍රමතුංග, ta, லசந்த விக்கிரமதுங்க; 5 April 1958 – 8 January 2009) was a high-profile Sri Lankan journalist, politician, broadcaster and human rights activist who was assassinated in January 2009.

Wickrematunge was the founder of ''The Sunday Leader'' newspaper and Leader Publications and was a virulent critic of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, and had been locked in a legal battle with Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was defence secretary at the time and was spearheading the battle against the LTTE rebels. His assassination sent shockwaves across the country, as he was one of the nation's most influential journalists and most well known political figures and raised questions about freedom of expression in the country. Wickrematunge's murder was widely condemned across the world. ''The Daily Mirror'' called it the "biggest blow" to media freedom in Sri Lanka, and the Editors Guild held the government responsible for the killing as it has failed to stop attacks against media personnel. The government also expressed shock at the killing, pledging to do everything in its power to catch his killers. Wickrematunge had been on Amnesty International's endangered list since 1998, when anti-tank shells were fired on his house.

Early life

Lasantha Wickrematunge was the youngest of six born in Kotahena Colombo, to Chandra and Harris Wickrematunge, a prominent politician, who had served as a Municipal Councillor for 30 years
and was former Deputy Mayor. Wickrematunge was the grandnephew of George E. de Silva and Agnes de Silva, cousin of Minnette de Silva, Fredrick de Silva and Desmond de Silva. In his childhood, Wickrematunge attended St Benedict's College.
He spent his adolescence in Britain, where he graduated high school and eventually returned to Sri Lanka, where he started law school.

Career

Political career

Wickrematunge began his career as a lawyer, practicing as a defense attorney for eight years under Ranjit Abeysuriya. Whilst practicing law, Wickrematunge made his way into the political scene before entering into Journalism starting with '' The Island'' and ''Sun'' newspapers. Wickrematunge ran in the 1989 Parliamentary election from a Colombo seat with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and then became the private secretary to the world's first female Prime Minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Wickrematunge then crossed parties moving to the United National Party and was advisor to Ranil Wickremasinghe and was often dubbed as the "De facto Opposition Leader".

Journalism

In 1994 Wickrematunge started the ''Sunday Leader'' with his brother Lal Wickrematunge. In addition to Sunday Leader, Wickrematunge was the Editorial Board Director for the Sinhalese Sunday newspaper ''Iruresa'' (launched 2004) and the Wednesday English paper ''Morning Leader'' (launched 2005). All three were severely critical towards the government. He reported critically on both the government and the Tamil Tiger (LTTE) rebels, and the Leader soon became “well known as the island's best independent newspaper". He later stated that once the paper was started, he had intended to return to Law, but found himself unwilling to give up Journalism's excitement. He was also a Writer for ''Time magazine'' and was a political commentator and hosted several broadcast programs including ''Good Morning Sri Lanka''.

The paper quickly drew threats and attacks for its reporting on corruption by government ministers. In 2000, the government tried Wickrematunge for criminal libel of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, but Wickrematunge received no major penalties.

The Leader was particularly critical in its coverage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. In 2008, Mahinda Rajapaksa, furious over the paper's reporting, called Wickrematunge and shouted at him that he would be killed if the paper's coverage did not change; the president had also described him as a "terrorist journalist". Later, after the assassination of Wickrematunge the paper was sold over to a Rajapaksa associate and an unconditional apology was made to Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa for publishing a series of reports suggesting that he had made corrupt arms deals.

In the weeks before Wickrematunge's death, a funeral wreath was delivered to him, as well as a copy of the newspaper reading "If you write you will be killed" in red paint.

In an editorial Wickrematunge had written shortly before his death, and that was published posthumously, he stated, "When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me."

State surveillance and political coercion

During the Rajapaksa regime and the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War, Wickrematunge was the country's leading critic of the government and of the war effort and found himself as the target of ongoing political persecution. Wickrematunge was subjected to media scrutiny and campaigns depicting him as a “traitor”. Wickrematunge condemned and spoke out against the treatment and oppression of the Sri Lankan Tamils and opposed Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s war strategies and continually called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

In 2008 Wickrematunge’s name was added to a “Traitor List” that was published on the Defence Ministry's official website.
State Intelligence Service (Sri Lanka) began surveilling Wickrematunge's phones

Timeline of attacks

On 7 February 1995, masked assailants pulled Wickrematunge and his first wife Raine, out of their car and attacked them with clubs. Raine later stated that the death threats became part of the routine of their lives: "There were so many threatening calls. 'We are going to kill you. We are going to kill your children.'"
In 2002, Wickrematunge's then wife left Sri Lanka due to the constant threats against their family, taking their three children to Australia.

In June 1998, Wickrematunge began to notice that his home was under surveillance. Wickrematunge reported that a white van with tinted windows was regularly parked outside his family residence. On the night of 17 June 1998, after returning from dinner with his wife and children, Anti-tank bullets were fired at Wickrematunge’s residence while his family were inside their home. 40 spent T56 anti-tank cartridges were also found outside the residence. Wickrematunge said that receiving threats was not unusual for him, and that such threats would come in even during his TV programme telecast on TNL TV which he hosted.

On 5 September 2000, Lasantha Wickrematunge was found guilty of criminally defaming Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga in a 1995 article in The Sunday Leader. Wickrematunge was sentenced to two years in jail, suspended for five years.

In January 2005, Wickrematunge broke the ‘Helping Hambantota’ scandal and continued with weekly follow-ups published in the Sunday Leader. Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was at the heart of the scandal was enraged as a result, and the relationship between Wickrematunge and Rajapaksa was strained.

Wickrematunge was threatened by President Mahinda Rajapaksa with whom he had a close personal friendship with for over 20 years. Wickrematunge was allegedly abused in foul language in a telephone call on 11 January 2006. According to Wickrematunge, the President had threatened to “destroy him” over a publication in his newspaper involving then First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa. Wickrematunge was detained briefly at Bandaranaike International Airport on 21 February 2006 as he arrived for a flight to Geneva. Airport officials had claimed that Wickrematunge required "special permission" to leave Sri Lanka.

In late December 2006, an unsuccessful attempt was made to arrest Wickrematunge, for "Endangering National Security" after he published a report exposing a Rs. 500 million luxury bunker to be built in the presidential complex in his newspaper. Criminal Investigation Department personnel had consulted Sri Lanka's then Attorney General, on the possibility of detaining Wickrematunge under Emergency Regulations.
Wickrematunge addressed the media and a large gathering of supporters outside the premises of The Sunday Leader and stated that he will not seek safe passage overseas and will face arrest and all political oppression levelled against him and “stand unbowed and unafraid”. Due to the public outcry and pressure on the Government by the country's Opposition Party and local and international Human Rights organisations, an arrest was not made.

The printing press of Leader Publications was destroyed in 2007 by an armed gang who stormed the building on the outskirts of Colombo and set the printing press machines on fire. At least 12 masked men carrying T-56 automatic weapons threatened the staff at the building and set it on fire.

In 2008, Rajapaksa had been keen to mend fences with Wickrematunge and directed his physician Eliyantha White to speak to Wickrematunge and bring a reconciliation.In October 2008, Mahinda Rajapaksa called Wickrematunge a “terrorist journalist” in an interview. Rajapaksa made these comments to Reporters Without Borders.

Legal dispute with Gotabaya Rajapaksa

In August 2007, ''The Sunday Leader'' reported on a military contract involving the purchase of Mikoyan MiG-27 Ukrainian fighter aircraft between Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his cousin Udayanga Weeratunga and the Sri Lanka Air Force.
On October 18, 2007, attorney-at-law Ali Sabry and lawyers representing Rajapaksa wrote to Wickrematunge threatening to sue him for defamation for LKR2 billion (€14 million) in damages.
On February 22, 2008, Rajapaksa filed a lawsuit for defamation against Wickrematunge and Leader Publications, charging that the allegations made by Wickrematunge against Rajapaksa were defamatory. Rajapaksa asserted that his role of Defence Secretary “had been adversely affected due to Wickrematunge, creating adverse consequences to the war against the rebels in the battlefield.”

On 5 December 2008, a judge ordered Leader Publications not to publish any reports about Gotabaya Rajapaksa, for two weeks. Several Weeks later, Wickrematunge was assassinated days before he was to testify and give evidence in court.

Assassination

Wickrematunge was shot while he was on his way to work around 10:30 a.m on 8 January 2009, a few days before he was supposed to give evidence about Gotabhaya Rajapaksa's corruption in arms deals before a judge. Four armed assassins riding motorcycles blocked Wickrematunge's vehicle before breaking open his window and shooting him.
He was taken to the Colombo South Teaching Hospital. It was initially planned with a helicopter on standby to transfer him to the Colombo National Hospital. A specialist team of 20 medical personnel were called in for the surgery. Despite surgery lasting nearly three hours, Wickrematunge died from his head wounds.

Reaction

Wickrematunge's assassination caused an international outcry. Reporters Without Borders
said that "Sri Lanka has lost its more talented, courageous and iconoclastic journalists," and said that "President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his associates and the government media are directly to blame because they incited hatred against him and allowed an outrageous level of impunity to develop as regards violence against the press". President Mahinda Rajapaksa described the assassination as an attempt to discredit the government and said he was both grieved and shocked and stated that he had instructed a thorough police inquiry and called the assassination an “International Conspiracy”.
The Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe observed that it was part of an anti-democratic conspiracy and accused the government of attempting to silence its critics.
The United National Party, Sri Lanka's main opposition party, also staged a demonstration in parliament on 9 January to protest his assassination. The assassination was condemned by Norway, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, India and Japan, the United Nations strongly condemned the assassination while the World Bank expressed its concerns over the attack.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa told Time (magazine) about Wickrematunge: "He was a good friend of mine. He had informed somebody to inform me that he was in danger. But unfortunately, I didn't get that message. I would have told him to go to the nearest police station. No one knows what happened."

Lord Malloch-Brown Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said in a statement to the UK Parliament that the British government condemned the killing of Wickrematunge and said that it was the duty of the authorities to take prompt action into these incidents:

Sri Lankan church leaders voiced their concerns over the attack and the ethnic violence in the Island nation. Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, "The assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunge, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country. This deliberate and senseless act ... is part of a wider and worsening strategy to suppress and silence the media."

In a statement ahead of World Press Freedom Day former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon called on the government of Sri Lanka to ensure that those responsible for Lasantha Wickrematunge's murder are found and prosecuted.

Investigation

After denying all responsibility for the attack the Rajapaksa government called for an investigation. Despite intense media pressure, no one was arrested, and Sri Lankan media speculated that the murder investigation may "end up as a cover-up", and that safeguards for an independent media appeared bleak.

After Mahinda Rajapaksa's defeat at the presidential election in 2015, the new government of President Maithripala Sirisena reopened the investigation over allegations that former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa ordered the assassination.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, the former Prime Minister, accused Sarath Fonseka, the former army commander, of the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge in 2008 and 2009. In 2011, the former MP Rajiva Wijesinha told BBC Sinhala Service that the British High Commission in Colombo had told him it possessed evidence that former military chief Gen Sarath Fonseka was involved in the assassination Lasantha Wickremetunge. According to Sarath Fonseka the order for the assassination was given by Gotabaya

Bandara Bulathwatte, a key suspect in the murder of Wickrematunge was given a diplomatic post in Thailand at the request of Gotabaya Rajapaksa near the 2010 presidential election. The letter sent bt Rajapaksa was prepared in haste and even a bio data of Bulathwatte was not attached despite it being a requirement for him to get his visa and have the appointment regularised by the foreign ministry.

After the elections, Rajapaska requested his departure to be postponed claiming an urgent matter regarding national security. Technical evidence and telephone records have placed Bulathwatte at the location where Wickrematunge was killed as well as in the places where other journalists were attacked. Investigations on assassinations, abductions and assaults on journalist after the fall of the Rajapaksa government revealed that Gotabaya directed a death squad to attack journalists that was outside the Army command structure during this time 17 journalists and media workers were killed and others were either assaulted or abducted.

In July 2016, it was revealed that Dias, who worked as a Chauffeur for Wickrematunge had been blindfolded and abducted by an Army Intelligence officer. Dias, told investigators he was often intoxicated and had been openly alleging that Gotabaya Rajapaksa was behind the assassination of his boss.

Dias was traced and questioned by investigators. He agreed to identify the person who abducted him in a lineup. Dias told the Criminal Investigation Department (Sri Lanka) that the assailant “looked just like his Uncle”. After working with a sketch artist, a key suspect was traced and soon identified by Dias.

In September 2016, an Exhumation of Wickrematunge's remains took place under a court order, after police investigators sought permission for a new examination due to contradictory medical and post mortem examination reports. Wickrematunge's grave in Colombo was under armed guard after a new autopsy request was announced earlier in the month, two months after a Military Intelligence official was arrested in connection with the killing of Wickrematunge.

In October 2016, a retired intelligence officer committed suicide and left a note claiming he is the killer of Wickrematunge and that the intelligence officers that were arrested and under investigation were innocent. The intelligence officer's family reported to Police that they did not believe the officer's death was a suicide.

In December 2016, Investigators travelled to Australia to interview and record statements from Wickrematunge's family. The
Criminal Investigation Department (Sri Lanka)
presented facts pertaining to Wickrematunge's assassination to the Mount Lavinia Magistrate's court (Sri Lanka).
According to court documents filed, Wickrematunge's daughter told investigators her father warned her he would be killed because of his investigations into the MiG deal.

In November, during the 2018 Sri Lankan constitutional crisis, Nishantha Silva one of the lead investigators in Wickrematunge's case
was transferred from the Criminal Investigation Department (Sri Lanka) to the Negombo Police division on a service requirement. Wickrematunge's daughter Ahimsa Wickrematunge, condemned the move to transfer Silva in an open letter addressed to President Maithripala Sirisena. The Transfer was stopped upon Wickrematunge's daughters letter.

After the 2019 Sri Lankan presidential election, Silva left Sri Lanka reportedly seeking asylum in Switzerland.
In July 2020, Shani Abeysekara former senior superintendent of police who headed the Criminal Investigation Department and
was leading the investigation into Wickrematunge's death was arrested by the Colombo Crimes Division. His family stated they believed he was being targeted for exposing human rights abuses implicating top politicians. Abeysekara was released on bail in June 2021.

In June 2021, Abeysekara wrote to the Sri Lankan Inspector General of Police and the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, requesting protection because he was facing consistent threats of assassination and physical harm due to the work and investigations he carried out.

On the 12th of May 2022, The People's Tribunal in the Hague held a trial producing facts and testimonies in the unsolved assassination of Wickrematunge and two other journalists from Syria and Mexico.

U.S lawsuit

In April 2019, Wickrematunge's daughter Ahimsa Wickrematunge filed a civil lawsuit against Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the state of California.
Wickrematunge's daughter's lawsuit alleged that Rajapaksa was behind his death. Rajapaksa, who was visiting the U.S to renounce his citizenship, was served legal documents outside a Trader Joe's parking lot in Pasadena.

Rajapaksa arrived back to Sri Lanka from the United States and was greeted by his supporters and members of the Buddhist Clergy who came to the Bandaranaike International Airport
to stand in solidarity with Rajapaksa. Due to the case filed against him, Rajapaksa's ability to renounce his citizenship was stalled.
Rajapaksa alleged that the case filed against him by Wickrematunge's daughter was “politically motivated” by the United National Party to stop him from contesting the Presidential Election that year.

Personal life

Wickrematunge was a teetotaller and a Christian.

Legacy

Wickrematunge's legacy has had a significant influence on the political landscape and the human rights movement and media in Sri Lanka. Wickrematunge mentored and inspired a generation of Journalists both in his life and after his demise.
Wickrematunge championed and spoke out in favor of Tamil and Muslim minorities and the rights of the LGBT community in Sri Lanka, and is lauded in the Tamil community for his consistent calls for equality and resolution between the Tamil and Sinhalese people.

In 2009, a large monument of Wickrematunge titled “Unbowed and Unafraid” by the sculptor Peter Sandbichler stood displayed outside the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna. In January 2019, Sajith Premadasa and the Ministry of Housing development announced the construction of a new village in honour of Wickrematunge. Lasantha Wickrematunge Anusmaranagama, the new village for Public Servants hosts 28 houses in honor of Wickrematunge.

During the 2022 Sri Lankan protests many protested to demand accountability and to bring justice for Wickrematunge. Banners and imagery depicting Wickrematunge and quotes by him were used and heavily featured during the protests.

Awards

In 2009, Wickrematunge was posthumously awarded the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. He was also awarded the Louis Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism of Harvard University's Nieman Foundation the James Cameron Memorial Trust Award, and the American National Press Club's John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award. In 2010, Wickrematunge was declared a World Press Freedom Hero of the International Press Institute. In 2016 the East-West Center, Hawaii posthumously conferred the 2016 Courageous Journalism Award on Wickrematunge.

Posthumous editorial

Following his death, the ''Sunday Leader'' carried a posthumous editorial by Wickrematunge, in which he blamed the government directly for assassinating journalists as its "primary tool" for controlling the media. He wrote:

Bibliography

Books

*''And Then They Came For me Raine Wickrematunge''
*'' The Cage (Weiss book)''
*''The Man Within My Head: Graham Greene, My Father and Me Pico Iyer

See also

*Notable assassinations of the Sri Lankan Civil War

References

External links

Dying for Journalism: Lasantha Wickrematunge of Sri Lanka:Time“And Then They Came For Me”: last words of Lasantha Wickrematunge UNESCO

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wickrematunge, Lasantha
1958 births
2009 deaths
Assassinated Sri Lankan activists
Assassinated Sri Lankan journalists
Deaths by firearm in Sri Lanka
People murdered in Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan journalists
Sinhalese lawyers
20th-century journalists
Recipients of John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award
De Silva family