[sacw] sacw dispatch #1(16 May 00)[Sri Lanka's War For Peace]

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web - Dispatch # 1
16 May 2000
_____________________
#1. Common man unperturbed by Jaffna war
#2. Committee to Protect Journalists letter to President of Sri-Lanka
#3. ARTICLE 19 Press Release
#4. Blacked Out in Sri Lanka
_____________________

#1.

The Straits Times
MAY 15, 2000

COMMON MAN UNPERTURBED BY JAFFNA WAR

The conflict between the Sri Lankan military and Tamil Tigers
fails to find its echo in Colombo, where people are not bothered
which side will triumph.

By JOSE RAYMOND in Colombo

THE roadblocks manned by armed military and police personnel at many
locations here are a grim reminder to Sri Lankans in the capital of
the war raging in the north.

And as the ethnic conflict between the Sri Lankan military and
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam escalates, one might presume that
the country's population would be riveted to television and radio sets
for the latest news from the battlefield.

But in Colombo, it seems that most of the people The Straits
Times spoke to actually do not really care anymore.

At the Galle Face Green, an open plot of land facing the Indian
Ocean, the young and the not so young converge every evening for a
game of cricket or just to enjoy the breeze the ocean brings.

To them, life goes on.

Said an office worker, Mr Sunil Akarasinghe who was playing
cricket with his nine-year-old son: "It does not matter now who wins
or loses the war. To me, Sri Lanka has lost.

"Over the last 17 years, this country has lost thousands of people
through this war. Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims; we are all Sri Lankans.
And this unnecessary killing of our people must stop.

"I do not care who wins this war. I just want it to stop soon. I
think we have all had enough. We have lost so many innocent lives,
including the lives of prominent leaders like Rajiv Gandhi, Ranasinghe
Premadasa and almost lost President Chandrika through suicide bombers.
How many more must we lose?"

Another Sinhalese tour guide, Nihal G, a father of three young
sons, said it was about time both sides came to an agreement and lived
in harmony.

"For me, I always tell my sons that no matter what happens, they
must always respect their fellow citizens, Tamils or Sinhalese or
otherwise, it does not matter."

"As a tour guide, I meet tourists every day and bring them to the
most beautiful places in Sri Lanka.

"It is such a pity that the war is tearing this country apart. If
only the money spent on this war is spent on improving the lives of us
Sri Lankans," he lamented.

A greeting-card vendor at the Colombo flea market, 28-year-old
Kalawikramasinghe, said that as a small businessman, life goes on for
him too despite the problems in the north.

"I have a business to run and many mouths to feed. I don't care
who wins the war. I do not even know who is telling the truth. The
government censors everything so how do I know who is telling the
truth?"

The LTTE wants a separate state in the north-east that they
consider as Eelam.
_______

#2.

Committee to Protect Journalists
330 Seventh Avenue -- 12th floor
New York, NY 10001
phone: 212-465-1004
fax: 212-465-9568
http://www.cpj.org

May 15, 2000

Her Excellency Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
President, Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Presidential Secretariat
Colombo-1
Sri Lanka

VIA FAX: 011-94-1-333-703

Your Excellency:

CPJ is gravely concerned by your government's further tightening of
censorship restrictions governing coverage of the civil war between the
government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The
recent regulations are the most draconian ever imposed on the media in Sri
Lanka, according to local journalists.

On May 4, under the provisions of the Public Security Act, the government
ordered all foreign correspondents and international news agencies filing
>from Sri Lanka to submit their reports to a censor. Local journalists have
been subject to censorship provisions since June 1998, but punitive measures
are now in place to enforce the regulations. The government now has the
power to arrest journalists, seize their property, block the distribution of
newspapers, and shut down printing presses if authorities determine that a
publication has flouted the censor's rules. "The publication of any material
that could harm national security may be banned," the state-run Sri Lankan
Broadcasting Corporation announced on May 4.

These regulations were imposed following critical military advances by the
rebel LTTE forces. Even before these advances, however, Sri Lankan
authorities routinely denied journalists access to conflict areas, thus
hampering their ability to report on the war.

As an organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of press freedom
around the world, CPJ condemns your government's decision to pursue this
policy of censorship, which is incompatible with democratic governance. No
democratically elected government can flourish by denying citizens their
right to information. We urge Your Excellency to lift the censorship orders
immediately and to ensure that journalists are able to report freely in
conflict zones, so that the Sri Lankan people may have access to independent
reporting on the course of the civil war.

We thank you for your attention to this urgent matter, and await your
response.

Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director

cc:
South Asian Journalists Association
American Society of Newspaper Editors
Amnesty International
Article 19 (United Kingdom)
Artikel 19 (The Netherlands)
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
=46reedom Forum
=46reedom House
Human Rights Watch
Index on Censorship
International Center for Journalists
International Federation of Journalists
International PEN
International Press Institute
Harold Hongju Koh, U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human
rights, and labor
Alain Modoux, director, UNESCO freedom of expression program
The Newspaper Guild
The North American Broadcasters Association
Overseas Press Club
Reporters Sans Fronti=E8res
Mary Robinson, United Nations high commissioner for human rights
The Society of Professional Journalists
World Association of Newspapers
World Press Freedom Committee
_______

#3.

15 May 2000
=46or immediate release

ARTICLE 19 calls on Sri Lankan government to revoke war censorshipThe Sri
Lankan government unreasonably extended the already excessiverestrictions
on freedom of expression on 4 May 2000, effectively placing thecountry on
a war footing. The authorities claim that extending reportingrestrictions
will help to resolve the country's conflict crisis.

ARTICLE 19believes that years of censorship have not had that effect and
thatincreasing restrictions at this time is more likely to exacerbate
tension.

ARTICLE 19 calls for the immediate repeal of the wartime
censorshipregulations which open up the possibility of abuse for political
ends andput Sri Lanka in further breach of her international obligations.
It is onlythrough an open process of dialogue, based on the public's right
to know andthe free flow of information and ideas, that lasting solutions
can beachieved.The government's new controls extend the considerable
restrictions alreadyplaced on the media, traditionally justified by
reference to nationalsecurity. The government now has the overriding power
to ban newspapers andclose down printing presses, as well as to implement
a sweeping regime ofprior censorship over material touching on security
issues.

ARTICLE 19 has consistently opposed the excessive restrictions on freedom
ofexpression in Sri Lanka, particularly in the form of prior restraint,
whichinternational restrict to only the most drastic circumstances.
Therestrictions have been consistently applied over the years, and have
beenclearly in evidence during the recent military developments taking
place inthe North.Both current legislation and the new restrictions breach
internationalguarantees of freedom of expression, which only permit
restrictions on thebasis of national security under narrowly defined
circumstances.International principles stipulate that with regard to
national security,restrictions should only be imposed by courts and not,
as with the currentregulations, by administrative bodies subject to
Government control.

ENDSNotes to Editors:1. The new controls were legislated by issue of a
special Gazettenotification in accordance with Chapter 40 of the Public
Security Ordnance.2. The principles on freedom of expression and national
security are definedin the Johannesburg Principles, available from ARTICLE
19.3.

=46or further information contact Katherine Huxtable at ARTICLE 19 on +44207
278 9292, <mailto:press@a...> press@a...
<mailto:press@a...> or visit ourwebsite
<http://www.article19.org> www.article19.org
<http://www.article19.org/>Katherine HuxtablePress OfficerARTICLE
19Lancaster House33 Islington High StreetLondonN1 9LHTel: +44 20 7278
9292Fax: +44 20 7713 1356
________

#4.

Washington Post

BLACKED OUT IN SRI LANKA
This heavily censored newspaper column by military analyst
Iqbal Athas appeared in the Sunday Times Newspaper of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
(Pamela Constable - The Washington Post) By Pamela ConstableWashington
Post Foreign ServiceTuesday, May 16, 2000; Page A14
NEW DELHI, May 15 =96=96 A big black X has been drawn across freedom of the
press in Sri Lanka, censoring everything from a single adjective portraying
army troops as "beleaguered" to an entire political cartoon showing
President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga dining with a Sri Lankan
guerrilla leader.
Kumaratunga ordered the draconian censorship measures, unprecedented in Sri
Lanka's half-century of parliamentary democracy with a brief exception in
1998, on May 3 after separatist Tamil rebels captured a major northern army
base in a stunning setback for the military.
Since then, newspaper articles and editorials have appeared with the word
"censored" typed in place of dozens of sentences the government deems too
sensitive or critical to appear in print. Live news programs about the
conflict have been banned, and international TV news broadcasts about Sri
Lanka have been muted and blanked out on screens across the country.
News from the Jaffna peninsula, where 30,000 army troops are battling the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, is limited to government news releases
minimizing the army's reverses and casualties, while competing statements
from the Tigers' headquarters in London are banned. All journalists are
prohibited from traveling to the war zone.
"People don't know what's happening. They only get the rosy government
version," said Waruna Karunatilake, a journalist and official of the Free
Media Movement, an advocacy group in Colombo. "They know things are bad,
but they don't know how bad."
The censorship measures have drawn protests from editors and publishers,
human rights groups and even Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, who said
Sunday that he viewed the measures as "counterproductive" and would like to
"see the end of censorship without delay."
"Every time the war has taken a turn for the worse, the president has
imposed censorship, but this seems to be the most draconian attempt to
suppress news of the conflict," said Kavita Menon of the Committee to
Protect Journalists in New York. "They keep trying to close new loopholes,
and it is already so difficult to report on the conflict."
Kumaratunga has said the emergency measures, which also include a ban on
political rallies, are "purely temporary" and will be removed "as soon as
the present crisis passes." In a recent televised speech, she said her
government has "no intention whatsoever of suppressing the people of this
country," but rather seeks to protect them during a period of national
crisis.
Under the new regulations, all news reports and scripts must be submitted
in advance to the official censor, Ariya Rubasinghe, who directs the
government's media information center. He crosses out offending portions
or, in some cases, bans the entire report. Under the law, journalists who
defy the ban risk arrest or deportation.
"We respect the freedom of the press, but for a little period, censorship
is there to protect people. It is a matter of national security,"
Rubasinghe told a Washington Post reporter in Colombo on Saturday. The
reporter had submitted an article--on refugees' fear for their stranded
families in Jaffna--to his office, but Rubasinghe said it could not be
published because it was "biased and distorted." The reporter left Sri
Lanka on Sunday and filed the article from New Delhi. It was published in
The Post on Monday.
=46or Sri Lankan journalists and foreign news agencies in Colombo, filing
daily accounts of the conflict has required a combination of
self-censorship and logistical maneuvering to circumvent the rules without
breaking them. Most agencies are sending information to their offices in
other countries, from where the reports are written and filed.
Local newspapers now routinely publish stories with entire sections marked
"censored," including editorial cartoons and even maps of the war zone. One
censored cartoon in the Island newspaper last week appeared blank. The
editor, G. Weerakoon, said it had showed a bandaged soldier in a military
hospital, dreaming of playing cricket and returning to a normal life.
Some newspapers, however, have found creative ways to challenge the ban and
attack the regulations as politically motivated. The Sunday Leader last
week submitted two nearly identical, fictitious articles to Rubasinghe
criticizing the war effort. The first one, which blamed the opposition
party, was allowed. The second, which blamed Kumaratunga, was banned.
"Let this be an eye opener," the Leader wrote on Sunday in a preface to
both stories, asserting that the government's intent was to curtail
criticism in the guise of a wartime emergency. "So much for the
government's noble intentions of introducing the draconian regulations in
the name of protecting national security and promoting national unity."
=A9 2000 The Washington Post Company
__________________________________________
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