Aiyathurai Nadesan, a prominent and veteran Sri Lankan Tamil journalist

BIOGRAPHY
Aiyathurai Nadesan, a prominent and veteran Sri Lankan Tamil journalist was shot dead on May 31, 2004 on his way to work in eastern Sri Lankan town of Batticaloa by gunmen belonging to an armed group.

Nadesan, the father of four children and aged 50 at the time of his death, hailed from Nelliyadi, a town in North Jaffna District in Sri Lanka. He wrote under the pen name Nellai Nadesan. Large crowds attended Nadesan’s funeral on 3 June 2004 in his hometown. The normal life of Nelliyady, came to a standstill. Shops were closed. The hearse was taken to the Nelliyady Madhya Maha Vidiyalayam Thursday morning from his residence where funeral orations were delivered by Tamil National Alliance parliamentarians, LTTE activists and Sunanda Deshapriya of the Free Media Movement. A protest demonstration was held in Colombo on 9 June 2004, condemning the Nadesan’s killing and a one day shut down was observed in the town of Trincomalee. Police have yet to make any arrests in his death.

Past incidents of intimidation

In July 2001 the Commanding Officer of the 233 Brigade in Batticaloa, Col. Manawaduge warned and threatened Nadesan. He was summoned to the Commanding Officer’s office and told that he writes only anti-government and anti-military news and articles and warned that if he continues in this fashion, action would be taken against him under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. This incident was the subject of an intervention by Free Media Movement on 24 July 2001. This incident was also reported by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression in February 2002.

Career

He was the Vice-President of the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance and a recipient of the Best Journalist of 2000 Prize awarded by the Sri Lanka Editors’ Guild. He was the Batticaloa based columnist for Virakesari, the country’s leading Tamil language newspaper, for more than twenty years. And also he was the local correspondent for Shakthi TV News and the London based International Broadcasting Corporation. For being a prominent member of the local press, Nadesan received the prize for the best Tamil journalist in 2000.

G.NADESAN’S WRITING ON 31.05.2004…..

Large crowds attend Nadesan’s funeral

Remains of the slain Tamil journalist, Mr.Aiyathurai Nadesan, were cremated Thursday afternoon at Alankattai cemetery in Vadamarachchi division in the Jaffna district. Two sons of Mr.Nadesan lit the fire to the pyre. Large number of people, students, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, politicians, leading members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and media personnel from all parts of the country attended the funeral, sources in Jaffna said.

Unknown assailants gunned down Mr.Nadesan Monday morning in Batticaloa when he was going to work in his motorbike, sources said.

The normal life of Nelliyady, Mr. Nadesan’s hometown, Thursday came to a standstill. Shops were closed. The hearse was taken to the Nelliyady Madhya Maha Vidiyalayam Thursday morning from his residence where funeral orations were delivered by TNA parliamentarians Messrs M.K.Sivajilingam, C.Gajendran, Suresh Premachchandran, Jaffna district LTTE political head Mr.C.Ilamparithi, LTTE Judiciary head Mr.Para and Mr.Sunanda Deshapriya of the Free Media Movement, sources said

Thereafter the hearse was taken to Alankattai cemetery where the cremation took place, the sources said.

Nadesan’s Funeral

Director-General condemns killing of Sri Lankan journalist Iyer Balanadarajah

20-08-2004 4:35 am UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today condemned the murder of Iyer Balanadarajah, better known as Sinna Baia, a reporter of the Tamil weekly Thinamurasu, and called for a full investigation of the killing, the second assassination of a journalist in Sri Lanka this year.

“I condemn the killing of Iyer Balanadarajah which, like all killings of journalists, constitutes a cowardly attack on democracy and rule of law,” Mr Matsuura declared. “I am confident that the authorities will spare no effort in investigating this killing, the second murder of this type this year. In view of the tragic violence that has marked so much of Sri Lanka’s recent history, it is essential that freedom of the press be allowed to take root, if peace and democracy are to be sustained.”

According to the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Border, Mr Balanadarajah’s newspaper has been subject to harassment from the insurgent Tamil Tigers (LTTE) movement. The NGO reports that another journalist working for the paper, Sadacharalingham Kamalathasan, was shot and wounded in the Batticaloa district, east of the capital Colombo. It also says that the Tamil Tigers earlier this year tried to stop distribution of the paper in the eastern part of the country. Aiyathurai Nadesan, a Tamil journalist with the daily Virakesari Tamil, was shot dead on 31 May.

UNESCO is the only United Nations agency with a mandate to defend freedom of expression and press freedom. Article 1 of its Constitution requires the Organization to “further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.” To realize this purpose the Organization is required to “collaborate in the work of advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples, through all means of mass communication and to that end recommend such international agreements as may be necessary to promote the free flow of ideas by word and image…”.

Committee to Protect Journalists Aiyathurai Nadesan Virakesari

May 31, 2004, in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka Nadesan, a veteran Tamil journalist with the national Tamil-language daily Virakesari, was shot by unidentified assailants in Batticaloa, a town on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka about 135 miles (216 kilometers) from the capital, Colombo, according to international news reports and local journalists.

Nadesan, who had worked at Virakesari for 20 years, was on his way to work when he was ambushed near a Hindu temple. The assailants escaped, and no group claimed responsibility.

Nadesan was an award-winning journalist who used the pen name Nellai G. Nadesan. He also reported for the International Broadcast Group, a Tamil-language radio station that broadcasts from London.

Violence erupted in Sri Lanka’s eastern region in the weeks before the murder after the main Tamil rebel group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), launched a military offensive against a breakaway faction headed by a soldier known as Colonel Karuna. Local journalists said that Nadesan was sympathetic to the LTTE. The LTTE accused the Sri Lankan army and members of the breakaway faction of Nadesan’s murder, according to the pro-LTTE Internet news site Tamil.net.

Nadesan had been harassed and threatened before his death because he had criticized the government and security forces, according to CPJ research. On June 17, 2001, a Sri Lankan army officer summoned Nadesan for an interrogation and threatened the journalist with arrest unless he ceased reporting about the army.

Journalist killed

New York, June 1, 2004—Aiyathurai Nadesan, a veteran Tamil journalist, was shot and killed on Monday, May 31, by unidentified assailants in Batticaloa, a town on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka and 135 miles (216 kilometers) from the capital, Colombo, according to international news reports and local journalists. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating whether the murder was related to Nadesan’s journalistic work.

Nadesan, who worked with the national Tamil-language daily Virakesari for 20 years, was on his way to work Monday morning when he was gunned down. Local police told The Associated Press that gunmen ambushed the journalist near a Hindu temple. The assailants escaped from the scene, and no group has claimed responsibility for the killing. The police in Batticaloa have launched an investigation into the murder, according to news reports.

Nadesan was an award-winning journalist who used the pen name Nellai G. Nadesan. He also reported for the International Broadcast Group, a Tamil-language radio station that broadcasts from London.

Violence erupted in Sri Lanka’s eastern region in recent weeks after the main Tamil rebel group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), launched a military offensive against a breakaway faction headed by a soldier known as Colonel Karuna. Local journalists said that Nadesan supported the LTTE. The LTTE has accused the Sri Lankan army and members of the breakaway faction of Nadesan’s murder, according to the pro-LTTE Internet news site Tamil.net.

Local journalist groups condemned the murder and called for a hartal, or national strike, for tomorrow, June 2.

After a 20-year-long civil war, Sri Lanka’s government reached a cease-fire agreement with the separatist LTTE in February 2002. Although the current peace agreement remains fragile, the two sides are scheduled to resume talks in July.

“We are outraged by the murder of Aiyathurai Nadesan and urge authorities to find and punish those responsible for this crime,” said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper.