COLOMBO: The People’s Tribunal on the Murder of Journalists at The Hague, the Netherlands, on September 19 issued an indictment against the Government of Sri Lanka, which it found guilty over the murder of editor and Attorney-at-Law Lasantha Wickrematunge.
Judge Eduardo Bertoni, who is part of the panel of judges of the Tribunal, noted that the indictment was filed on the basis that the prosecutor holds the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka responsible for the grave violation of the international human rights of the slain journalist, according to a report in The Morning newspaper.
He further stressed that the indictment was filed specifically on the right to life, the right to freedom of expression, and the right to effective remedy.
While reading the indictment, Judge Bertoni highlighted: “The Government violated Wickrematunge’s right to freedom from discrimination based on political opinion.”
Judge Martina Forti, highlighting Wickrematunge’s case, stressed that the audacious attack on one of Sri Lanka’s best known and most outspoken journalists shows a larger problem that independent-minded journalists in Sri Lanka faced during that time and are still facing today.
She noted that the Tribunal session was held on 12 and 13 May 2022, in The Hague. Over the two days of the hearing, testimony and documentation were presented regarding the extrajudicial killing of 27 journalists and 17 media workers between 2004-2010, out of which at least 35 were Tamils.
“These killings have not been effectively investigated and the perpetrators were not convicted, while most journalists are believed to have been killed because of their criticism of the Government, the decades-long civil war or because they supported the Tamils,” she said.
Further, she said: “We must note that in none of the cases of murder, assault, and disappearance has there been any conviction. On the contrary, in some of them, the military personnel who were named and charged in these crimes, have been pardoned and reinstated.”
Wickrematunge was assassinated on 8 January, 2009, by unidentified gunmen riding motorcycles in Ratmalana.
Wickrematunge was killed while driving to work after writing about Sri Lanka’s government corruption and criticizing the then-government’s alleged human rights violations during the long-running ethnic conflict. The government vowed to investigate but the case remains unresolved.
However, The Morning newspaper quoted Minister of Justice Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe PC as saying that it was impossible to issue an indictment against a government, and that indictments can only be issued against individuals who are responsible.
The ‘People’s Tribunal’ a series of civil society-led hearings culminated in The Hague on September 19 with a call for an “independent and comprehensive” review of how to protect media workers in an age of increasing authoritarianism.
Launched by a coalition of press freedom organizations in November last year, this ‘People’s Tribunal’ heard evidence and analysis about the killing of journalists in Mexico, Sri Lanka and Syria.
While it had no legal powers to convict anyone, the tribunal aimed to raise awareness, pressure governments and gathered evidence through what it called its form of “grassroots justice.”
“In view of the overwhelming and compelling evidence … the states of Mexico, Sri Lanka and Syria are guilty of all the human rights violations brought against them in the indictment,” said Judge Bertoni, a professor at Buenos Aires University School of Law and one of the tribunal’s nine self-appointed judges.
He noted that none of the governments submitted any defense despite being invited to do so.
The initiative, backed by Free Press Unlimited, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders, spent a year investigating the killings of three journalists – Miguel Ángel López Velasco in Mexico, Lasantha Wickrematunge in Sri Lanka and Nabil Al-Sharbaji in Syria – to raise awareness about ongoing attacks against the media.
Daily Mirror quoted Ahimsa Wickrematunge, daughter of Lasantha as saying that she will continue to fight for her father.
She said that a ruling by a ‘People’s Tribunal’ has strengthened her perseverance and advocacy.
“Hearing the judges at the ‘People’s Tribunal’ deliver a guilty verdict on the assassination of my father was something my family and I have, for 13 years, waited on the Sri Lankan government to deliver. For years the Sri Lankan government shut their doors on families like mine seeking justice for their loved ones,” Ahimsa Wickrematunge told the Daily Mirror.
“I will continue to fight for my father till the day he sees justice,” she said.
Ahimsa said that globally, impunity for crimes against journalists is getting worse and thanks to the People’s Tribunal, slain journalists like her father finally have an opportunity resembling a day in court.
Earlier in a series of Twitter posts, Ahimsa welcomed the verdict delivered by the People’s Tribunal.
“Yesterday, the People’s Tribunal at The Hague found the government of Sri Lanka guilty of my father Lasantha Wickrematunge’s murder. The People’s tribunal has achieved justice for my father which the government of Sri Lanka failed to do in 13 years.
“This judgement has given renewed strength and hope to me and I see it not only as a victory for families like ours hoping for justice for their loved ones but a clear message that perpetrators of such crimes cannot evade justice.
“My family express our undying debt and eternal gratitude to the People’s Tribunal, Free Press Unlimited, Committee to Protect Journalists
“and Reporters Without Borders for their dedicated hard work and collaboration in bringing this project to life and to each and every person who contributed.”
The tribunal’s leaders said Mexico, Sri Lanka and Syria each failed to protect the lives of journalists — whose cases were examined in the hearings — and “demonstrated the lack of a wider will” to bring journalists’ killers to justice.
“There should be a comprehensive independent review of the apparent inability of the international community’s initiatives, largely through the United Nations… to protect journalists, media workers and even media organizations,” said Gill Boehringer, a judge on the panel.
He also detailed a raft of other measures to be taken, saying “impunity must end.”
The tribunal examined the 2009 killing of newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunge during Sri Lanka’s Tamil separatist conflict, the 2011 murder of Mexican journalist Miguel Angel Lopez Velasco along with his wife and son, as well the death of Nabil Al-Sharbaji in a Syrian detention center in 2015.
Mexico, Sri Lanka and Syria “through their acts of omission including the lack of investigation, the lack of reparation for the victims and impunity… are guilty of all the human rights violations brought against them in the indictment,” Argentinian judge Eduardo Bertoni said.
But the problem of attacks on journalists remained “and was getting worse worldwide,” tribunal judge Helen Jarvis said.
The latest case was that of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh who was shot in the head during an Israeli army operation in mid-May, the judges said. Israel has pushed back at suggestions that the soldier who likely pulled the trigger be prosecuted, after conceding earlier this month one of its troops may have mistaken her for a militant.
Worldwide more than 2,170 journalists have been killed since 1992 and in the vast majority of cases the killers have gone free, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
(The Morning/Daily Mirror/Agencies)
