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Wave of arrests of Sinhala anti-war activists in Sri Lanka

URGENT ACTION! Your immediate response can save these lives!

Wave of arrests of Sinhala anti-war activists in Sri Lanka
The German presidency of the EU has responsibility to act immediately to save their lives!

On Monday the 5th of February three prominent Sinhala anti-war activists in the media field were arrested in Colombo. Mohammed Lalith Senevirathne, Sisira Priyankara, Nihal Serasinghe were abducted on the same day at different places in what appears to be a planned operation with a clear political motivation. Based on past practise their lives are peril.

The international dimension to this arrest is the meeting in Berlin a few days ago between the German Foreign Minister Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his Sri Lankan counterpart Rohitha Bogollagama. Today’s (6.02.07) Sri Lankan newspaper ‘Daily News’ states that Germany will firmly support Sri Lankan policy and quotes Minister Bogollagama saying that ‘his German counterpart assured that there won't be any breakdown in bilateral relations or development aid to Sri Lanka' and goes on to say that he was able ‘to convey a clear picture as to what was going on in the peace front without leaving room for distortion of facts by interested parties.’ This apparent legitimisation given by the Germany – the current holder of the EU presidency – is seen as providing confidence for the Sri Lankan government to move ahead its repression of voices of dissent in the Sinhala media field - eliminating the space ‘for distortion of facts by interested parties’. Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier is portrayed in Sri Lanka as a hard line politician willing to stand firmly with the Sri Lankan government’s policy in conducting the war, putting aside concerns of human rights and democratic freedoms.

The three abductions

Nihal Serasinghe was abducted in Fort, Colombo around 3.00pm while he was coming out from a printing shop. Mohammed Lalith Senevirathne was abducted around 9.30pm at his home in Athurugiriya by an armed gang who had come in a white van. Sisira Priyankara attended his usual night shift on the day in question at his workplace and went out around 10.30pm after receiving a phone call. He had told his workmates that he would be back after meeting a friend who was supposed to be waiting at the gate. He went missing after that. All three that were involved in publishing a monthly trade union newspaper for the Dumriya Kamkaru Ekathuwa (Railway Workers Collective) for the CGR (Ceylon Government railway) workers. Sisira Priyankara is an Executive Committee member - Railway Joint Trade Union Front, Treasurer - Ceylon Railway Trade Union Federation and organizer of the Railway Workers Collective, which publishes the ‘Akuna’ Newspaper. He played a prominent role in the recent legal action taken by trade unions against the decision to increase the salaries of the president, ministers and MPs.

Sisira Priyankara was the editor of this newspaper and his photo appeared in all the Sinhala newspaper in during the Sinhala-Tamil cultural festival organised by the Hiru group in 2003 because he physically defended the Tamil people from being attacked by racist thugs of the extremist JHU. (See ../doc_en/countries/sri-lanka/cultural_festival.html ). A few days the Sri Lankan President has appointed a member of the JHU to the cabinet.

Mohammed Lalith Senevirathne - Age 36 was the chief layout artist of the Akuna – he is a free lance journalist and he was previously attached to the ‘Hiru’ Newspaper. Nihal Serasingha – did typesetting work for the railway workers newspaper. He was a former editorial staff member of the leftwing monthly ‘Diyesa’.

Seneviratne's wife had lodged a complaint with the Police in Aturugiriya.

Police officials have told the family that they have not taken anyone by the name of Lalith Seneviratne into custody for questioning. "A group of five to seven persons dressed in plainclothes visited the home of Mr. Seneviratne and took him away. When he shouted to his wife, sensing danger, one member of the group stopped the wife from intervening, saying that they were from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)," said Free Media Movement (FMM) in Colombo.

"FMM is seriously concerned for his safety, since at the time of this release, five hours after his abduction, no law enforcement authority had admitted to taking him into custody, nor had there been any news available about his whereabouts," the FMM said.

We urge you to immediately contact, through phone or fax Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier or his office and question him on where he stands on this issue. Urge him to contact his counterpart in Sri Lanka and ensure the release of the three individuals and ask him to make a public statement on this issue.

German Foreign Ministry
Phone: 00 49 30-5000-2000
Fax: 0049 30-5000-3402

Online contact page:
http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/diplo/en/service/AllgemeinesKontaktformular.jsp

Please email a copy of your correspondence to imrv@humanrights.de

International Human Rights Association Bremen e.V

Rally against the abduction of the journalists