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Sri Lankan editor points finger from the grave
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Sri Lankan editor points finger from the grave
By RAVI NESSMAN,Associated Press Writer AP - 2 hours 55 minutes ago
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Lasantha Wickrematunge, a prominent Sri Lankan journalist and outspoken critic of the government's war on ethnic Tamil rebels, knew he was marked for death _ and thought he knew why.
Three days after he was gunned down execution-style, Wickrematunge's newspaper published a haunting, self-written obituary Sunday in which he says he was targeted for his writings and adds: "When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me."
Even as Sri Lanka savors battlefield victories over Tamil Tiger rebels that offer hope of finally ending the decades-long civil war, the government is coping with attacks on another front: It faces harsh criticism from abroad, from at home _ even from the grave _ over high-profile attacks on the independent media.
Wickrematunge's death and another attack last week that trashed a television station were the latest in a string of assaults against journalists. Both most-recent media targets had been accused of insufficient patriotism in their coverage of the war and other issues.
International rights groups, diplomats and local activists expressed outrage at the attacks, while opposition politicians accused the government of at best condoning the violence and possibly ordering the strikes itself.
Authorities have denied the accusations and promised a thorough investigation of the media attacks.
"The government does not get involved in these kind of brutal murders," Cabinet Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said.
Thousands of people turned Wickrematunge's funeral Monday into a large anti-government protest, lining the streets as his casket was driven in a slow procession to the cemetery. Many wore black armbands and demanded justice.
"The government should arrest the people responsible for this killing. Otherwise, we will think the government itself is responsible for the killing," said Wilson Colombage, a 66-year-old retiree.
Journalists critical of the government have come under repeated attack in recent years as the war with the Tamil Tigers intensified. Reporters who ran afoul of the rebels have also come under threat.
According to Amnesty International, at least 14 journalists and Sri Lankans working for the media have been killed since the beginning of 2006. Others have been detained, tortured or have allegedly disappeared, while another 20 have fled the country after getting death threats, the London-based rights group said.
Still, the audacity of last week's attacks stunned many here.
Early Tuesday morning, more than a dozen men armed with assault rifles and grenades raided the compound of a private TV and radio network, held the guards at gunpoint and calmly walked through the building shooting out windows and blowing up the control room before driving away. The station had been accused by the state media of not being "patriotic" enough in reporting the recent military successes.
On Thursday, gunmen on motorcycles ambushed Wickrematunge as he drove to work on a busy suburban road. Wickrematunge, who died in surgery, was fiercely critical of the government and its conduct of the war and routinely accused top officials of corruption.
In his posthumous column, entitled "And Then They Came For Me," Wickrematunge accused the government of orchestrating a wave of violence to suppress dissent.
"Murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control the organs of liberty. Today it is the journalists, tomorrow it will be the judges," he said.
The U.S. called the killing a "shocking blow to independent media." Reporters Without Borders, which ranked Sri Lanka last among democratic countries in press freedom, blamed the government for creating an atmosphere of impunity that spurred such attacks.
Opposition politician Mangala Samaraweera accused the authorities of directly ordering the attacks.
"Both were carried out with extreme military precision and it is beyond any doubt that only people with sanction from the government could carry it out," said Samaraweera, who called for an international probe into the attacks. "There is no glory for Sri Lanka at the moment, only shame."
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised a thorough investigation and is clearly rattled by the accusations.
He made a nationally televised speech on Jan. 2 _ before the media attacks _ jubilantly announcing the fall of the rebel capital of Kilinochchi as Cabinet ministers showered him with applause.
A week later, during a second speech to announce the capture of another rebel stronghold, he was stern and morose. While he never directly addressed the media attacks, he referred to them by implication and blamed unnamed opponents of carrying them out to try to destroy troop morale and embarrass the government.
"This is a conspiracy against the entire country," he said.
In his column predicting his own assassination, Wickrematunge mocked the president personally and forecast that no one would ever be arrested in his murder.
"In the wake of my death, I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry," he wrote, addressing Rajapaksa. "But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too."
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